To the Top
by AncientDoom
Summary: As Jack said: The difference between a great man and a nobody, is that the nobody sees opportunity... and doesn't take it! Well, Rhys is anything if not ambitious! Tales from Rhys's point of view, and eventually AU. -Cursing-, -Blood-, -This is borderlands-.
1. Prologue

**In my opinion, this fic will have hit its stride at chapter 5. If you still don't like it after that, go ahead. But do try to bear with it to that point before deciding.**

 **Note: This is named after the best (imo) Tales from the Borderlands song. "To the Top by Twin Shadow" For best effect, listen to the song and you will understand and I feel it captures a lot of the characters in it.**

 **This is entirely from Rhys' view. I will build him up from scratch, explore his character, and hopefully make a Tale From the Borderlands story worth reading. It will be canon but also have moments added where I think they can be explored further. I will also not quote too many things from the game. I am aiming for accuracy of character, but not going to quote every line.**

 **I am also trying to do a certain plot device that is usually used in memory-fictions. The typical memory fiction has characters looking into a person's memory, and they make comments. This will be relatively similar, but different. And that is just how Tales from the Borderlands is done, and that is what I want to be true to right now.**

 **Tales from the Borderlands was done as a gigantic flash-back/memory where the main character told the story to a guy, and the guy commented now and then or questioned their decisions. I'll try to be true to that.**

 **So every now and then you may have moments where a character from outside the 'memory' or flash-back or Rhys-tale make a comment, and I'll try to be clear on that. If there is ever more than just one or two comments, followed by someone asking Rhys to continue, then I'll try to make it a whole separate scene for clarity sake.**

 **At some point I may feel it necessary to drift from the canon plot and go AU, but that definitely won't be for the first couple episodes at least as they build up the group so well.**

* * *

 **Prologue - Not the most… comfortable… of beginnings**

* * *

Rhys blinked awake as a door swung open and a blaring light shot in his face. He lacked sleep and had no reference for time. Three times now he had been rudely awoken, beaten and roughed up a bit, and left to wonder when the next beat down would begin. As though these people had nothing better to do with their time.

As luck, or karma, would have it, this time was different. Rhys shielded his eye with his hand against the light and was promptly grabbed. The men were rat-tag and smelly as could be, but pulled him out of his cot and marched him through the prison with more purpose than he was used to seeing from people around here. If you wanted to peg a Pandoran, you watched their feet. They walked drunk, high, carefully, or a combination. These people marched. Very different. Spoke of some kind of organization.

Not to state the obvious or anything, but Rhys knew where he was and who held him. Even in his confused state he had an idea who wanted to talk with him. He was dragged to a room with a chair where he was strapped down. A light was put in his face, and he could barely make out no less than five soldiers with guns on him. Three more entered from the door, and these three were special. He recognized them by their voices.

Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick.

This group of people were created by a guy named Roland, who is now dead (this is Pandora, go figure.) and Lilith was his girlfriend who, naturally, grabbed everything he owned when he died. Which was fair. You see something, you take it. Being his girlfriend was as close to inheritance as it goes around here.

Mordecai was a typical Vault Hunter that took on being a leader to Roland's band with difficulty. He probably wanted to continue flying solo, but had found a home here.

Brick just wanted to punch stuff, and liked Roland. Simple guy, simple reasons.

Rhys had never met them, but he knew them. Oh… yes. He knew them. He knew them very well. They would want him dead the moment they knew how well. Unfortunately, they had a close idea… and that didn't bode well for him.

Rhys smirked as best he could. Even with one eye and one arm, he wasn't scared. He was afraid, but he wasn't scared. Funny how he felt there was a difference. But then, with what he's been through, he knew there was a difference. "Where's Athena? Thought she wouldn't want to miss the chance to punch my teeth in."

"She's too busy off training your ex-girlfriend." Mordecai said cooley. He grabbed a chair, spun it around, and sat in it backwards to lean against the back of it and face him.

"She's was never my girlfriend…" Rhys started, but shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Listen, I don't know what you want from me, not specifically anyway. I won't deny the obvious. I have Hyperion written all over me and… that is probably a million and one reasons right there to blow my brains out, but! If that is what you wanted, I would already be dead. Sorry, but Pandora is the shoot first, second, and third WHILE you talk kind of place"

More like you just keep shooting till the clip runs out and then wonder why your victim isn't joining in the conversation. So you unload a second clip of bullets just for aggravation, followed by a third for therapeutic relief.

"He has a point." Brick says.

"Guys." Lilith says patiently. "We're the ones in charge. We ask the questions."

"Yeah, but you have to admit, he has a point. We do kinda shoot second, fourth, sixth-"

"That's first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth." Mordecai corrects him.

"That's what I said."

"Not unless you use a double-barreled shotgun. Then the big guy's right." Rhys supplies.

Brick's eyes widen and he goes, "Whoa…" Mind successfully blown.

"I use a sniper rifle, not a shotgun." Mordecai argues. "So it's more like I shoot first, reload, first, reload, first, reload-"

Lilith face-palms. "Guys! He's drawing you into his pace. He- you know what, forget it!" Lilith stomps forward and takes position in front of Rhys. "A lot, a LOT of people are dead because of you." Rhys flinches. Despite himself, the guilt was close to his skin. "And you are going to tell us what happened."

What happened… And to be fair, Rhys did owe them an explanation. He screwed up, royally, and it was the kind of mistake that would take his whole life to fix.

"It's kinda complicated… and explaining properly would take a while."

"We have time." Lilith responded.

"Alright." Rhys nodded. Not like he was going anywhere. Rhys started his tale.

* * *

My tale is also not exactly a fairy tale. There was no magical ending made of a series of pitch-perfect moments. I did my best, and time and time again I failed. Sometimes that failure resulted in something as minor as having an A.I. shoved into my brain, and other times it got people I cared about hurt.

But my tale is one worth telling.

Not because I did anything as epic as say… a Vault Hunter. I didn't bring Pandora to its knees like Handsome Jack. Hell, I was a wimp. I was a simple programmer. I was an opportunist, a corporation shark. I saw opportunities, sometimes of a less legal nature, and I took them.

Perhaps it was that nature that made my tale what it would be… As a motivational poster, of Jack, says: "The difference between a great man and a nobody, is that the nobody sees opportunity… and doesn't take it."

Okay! So it might have actually been an ad for his city of Opportunity! But I still think it fits.

Brick interrupted to ask, "Should I get popcorn? I'll get some popcorn. Be right back."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Continue."

Like many other tales, this started as a promise of riches and loss in equal measure. It wasn't a magical moment, nor one worth putting in the history books, but for me… it was the beginning. When I learned what a hero was.

My parents were Hyperion, through and through.

"No surprise there." Mordecai added.

Dad was an engineer and programmer. A brilliant man, I think I got my smarts from him. He was a bit cold though. Not that it was anything bad, he just had trouble with emotions and people in general. He was eccentric like that.

Mom was almost the opposite. She wasn't brilliant, but she had a trusting heart and cared about people. Unfortunately a big heart isn't something that works in Hyperion, so she could only go so far up the ladder. She was handicapped in her career.

That's about all I remember at least. Dad was eccentric and brilliant, and mom was a caring person. They were average people simply doing their best from day to day. The promise of work, and a promotion, on Pandora was a big deal. Even as young as I was, being seven, I saw how excited they were and what it could mean for us.

It was also too good to be true.

Some woman named Zarpedon and her army called the 'Lost Legion' attacked the Hyperion space station, and we were caught in an explosion in the initial assault.

The explosion threw me right out the front door of our apartment and into the collapsing hallway. Rubble and debris and metal fell all around me and all I knew was a burning sensation, a sharp snapping pain all down my left side, and brightness. Thank God I fell into a coma…

Some guys found me in the wreckage as they fled the scene and stopped long enough to pull me out. I was broken. The entire left side of my body was crushed from all the crap that fell on me. My parents were dead. The corporation put all of its focus on defensive matters rather than bothering to care about sudden orphans that needed to be in a hospital.

But Jack changed all that.

Sure, he killed a lot of people on his way to the top, but he did what no other Hyperion was going to do! He stopped the Lost Legion, he saved the company, he diverted funds to taking care of the damage and losses… including what it took for the hospital to fix me up.

Perhaps it had been just an afterthought to him, a moment of conscience, a way of buying loyalty and looking like a guy who took care of his own. Hell, he might have lost a bet for all I know, but that didn't matter.

As I laid there in the hospital bed with tubes in me watching Hyperion news with cybernetics replacing the entire left side of my body, knowing that my family's death had been avenged and the fact that a NOBODY named Jack had done it all… and that he had made it possible for me to be alive again.

He was my hero.

He was my idol.

That thinking was the first mistake down a long road of failures…

"I'll save you the ending and say you really screwed up thinking that." Lilith commented.

"I was a kid!" Rhys argued.

"I got popcorn!" Brick yells from the hall.


	2. Chapter 1 - Promotion

**Chapter 1 - Promotion**

* * *

I wake five minutes before the alarm goes off and slam my first on it. Why is it that the alarms are annoying no matter what model you get, or what galaxy it comes from?

No matter, I smile. Nothing can ruin this day!

I jump out of bed and begin the tedious process of getting ready for the day. Except, today is a special day, so the process demands special treatment.

I shower, trim my eyebrows, pluck my nose hairs, brush my teeth, brush them again for extra measure, settle for the red tie, tuck the bottom into my pants, throw on a Hyperion issue jacket, polish my shoes, pull on my lucky socks, slip into my finest shoes with a half-inch heel, comb and wax my hair, and shine my ID.

One last thing to do before I head out. I sit at my desk and lay my robotic arm down. My left arm is cybernetic all the way up to my shoulder. Don't be fooled by the skin on my face. My skull is a light-steel alloy on the left side and the biggest clue is the cybernetic eye and port on my temple.

My arm is state of the art. Took the majority of my income, and some less than savory deals that play on my conscious, to make it advanced, but it was worth it. It comes with the ability to hack and plant viruses of my own creation and to act as a portable computer. It also has compartments for extra modules as well, which brings me back to what I'm doing.

"Okay, which modules to use today." I murmur to myself.

The more modules I have in my arm, the heavier it is. Basic logic when it comes to installing hardware. Also the more power needed to run it, a higher processor, and more memory, and better ventilation. (In this case, liquid cooling.) All of which comes down to weight, money, and bulk. At first it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it gets kinda awkward when you feel one arm is heavier than the other.

I settle for the strength module. It acts like a muscle, allowing the arm to not feel as heavy and be less awkward. With what is going on today, I'll want to look professional and not have an awkward dip in my step.

I turn off my arm and it drops onto the table with a thud. I put tools in my mouth and with my right hand pry a plate open and begin working. I've done this hundreds of times. Having to do maintenance on your own arm teaches you things and lets you practice your skills. It doesn't take long for me to install the module into my cybernetic arm. I also check the Neuropozyne vial inside.

Funny thing… Cybernetics and mechanical augmentation. They are not natural to the body, so the body rejects them… and the process is very very VERY painful, mentally and physically. It literally screws with your nerves and body tissue. I've had hangovers before. Imagine a hangover while being unable to breathe, you have an constant heart attack, and your entire body is screaming in pain while tearing itself apart. So far as I hear, it might be the one thing worse than pregnancy depending on how much of your body is augmented. If the only thing augmented is a hand, it's not bad. In my case, its half my entire body.

So yeah, the same process that saved my life is also slowly killing me.

"Bullshit." Lilith blurts out. She looks angry. "Don't try to get sympathy here, tha-"

"No, no its actually real." Mordecai replies.

Lilith pauses and looks back at the hunter.

"Seriously." Mordecai says. "It's very real. He's telling the truth."

"No shit?" She asks. She glances at Rhys and shakes her head. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. Lots of people live with augmentation. Keep going."

Where was I… oh yes!

Neuropozyne is a drug that forcibly halts the rejection and acts as a painkiller. The higher-end drugs also give you a buzz, but I would rather keep my head in the game, thank you! They aren't cheap either.

The vial is down to a tenth… so a day? Something like that. A full vial lasts me about two weeks. I muse with myself, "Best go ahead and replace it. Don't want to have to run out tonight."

I pull out a vial from the fridge and replace the nearly-empty vial with a fresh one.

Content with the arm, I snap it back in place in my shoulder socket and hit the switch. The arm snaps around for a moment stiffly before slowly relaxing and moving in tandem with my thoughts like my real arm. I flex the fingers and smirk.

I stand and look in the mirror. I throw myself a gun-salute. "You, Rhys, look like a million bucks."

There is a knock on the door, and its exactly 0630 hours. I open the door and Vaughn stands at the door. "Right on time, Bro." We bump fists.

"I try. So, you ready for this?" Vaughn asks.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I step out of my apartment and lock the door. We begin the long walk to sweet sweet victory.

Brick asks in between mouthfuls of popcorn, "Who's this guy? He looks like a dweeb."

Vaughn is my bro, my best friend, my man, my buddy, friend, broski. If there is any possible word that depicts a friendship or brother without being part of the actual family, it would describe us. He is also freakishly smarter than me when it comes to numbers. I couldn't have gotten myself to where I am now without him, and the same could be said in reverse. I helped get him where he is as well.

Long story short, I'm an opportunity shark and a programmer. I also have computer/cybernetics engineering degree, hacking skills beyond the norm, and connections; but I hide it. Best to not look too good. Looking too good causes you to get mobbed, and it's always good to have a few aces up your sleeve.

Vaughn is an corporate shark like me, only when it comes to numbers. He can look at a page full of gibberish and numbers and point out the flow of cash through it all, find strengths and weaknesses in a budget or company, and stuff like that.

It was his insight into numbers and where money flows that caught on to an eridium mine, my connections and epic skills that landed a mining contract, and our teamwork that has earned me my promotion that we are now walking towards like champions. He is a bit squeamish when it comes to backstabbing people, so we can say that the 'shark' mentality comes more from me than him. Vaughn is more of a follower anyway.

I let Vaughn continue talking as we walk. I grunt and acknowledge him at times, and just let him talk. He likes to brainstorm constantly, to the point of excess. "What is the first thing you want to do with the money?" Vaughn asks me in excitement.

Honestly, I don't know. I shrug.

"Come on, there must be something you want to do with it! The promotion is going to be big! I've seen the numbers, if it is even a fraction of what I've seen, we won't know what to do with it all!"

"Hmm. I think I'll start with lunch." I really don't know what to do with the money. I've thought about it, but I haven't come up with anything concrete, just some basic ideas.

He looks a bit down that I'm thinking so small, but he doesn't let it get him down. "Then we are buying the most expensive things on the menu with cocktail chasers!"

"For lunch?"

"Yeah, bro. If I am not throwing up five-hundred dollars' worth of food by tonight, we are doing something wrong!"

I chuckle. "Sounds good, bro. But actually, I'm thinking the money should be used as an investment."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it was our skills that got us this promotion. You knew where to look to find the hole in the system, I filled the hole with people and got the deal going, we backstabbed a few jerks and after earning ourselves a tiny bit of profit got me a huge promotion! All of that with very little money involved. It was pure skill."

"Yeah." He smiles. He doesn't often take the time to acknowledge his many strengths. I have to remind him how awesome he is or he go all pessimistic on me. I know he also appreciates hearing it from me.

"Now, take that skill, that epicness, and add a lot of money to the mix. The power that comes with money."

Vaughn's eyes slowly widen and I can see the gears spinning in his head. I smirk and finger-gun him. "You get what I'm saying now?"

"Ooohh yeah! I'm liking where your thought is going!"

"Right! So, here is what I'm thinkin'. Buy lunch, get ourselves so drunk we forget about dinner, wake up with the worst hangover of all time and fill a day on painkillers and shooter games-"

"Space Ninja Monkeys 2?"

"Whatever you want, bro. Just spend the whole day doing that. Then we pay our bills, our debts, and use the rest of the profit as a jumping board to work toward a bigger promotion."

Vaughn adjusts his glasses and mumbles something to himself. "If my numbers are right, then we would still have at least eighty-five percent left over when we are done."

Damn, the number must be big then.

"Then getting to the next one will be all the easier." We stop in front of Henderson's office. "Just think. In a few months at the rate we are going, we could replace the guy."

"You. You will replace the guy." He corrects me.

"Vaughn…" I hate it when he puts himself down. I rub my temples. "We are a team! You earned the promotion as much as I did."

"We are a team, but you know which guy in a band is known most? The guy who sings. And I'm cool with that!" He smiles.

I see what he means now. Knowing him, he is more comfortable in the background doing the drums anyway. "I may be getting promoted, but this is a win for both of us. You know why I know that?"

"Okay, why do you know that Mr. Know-It-All?" He dares me.

"Because when I get in the chair, I won't forget the little guys." I raise my cybernetic hand. Just like Handsome Jack didn't forget kids like me…

Vaughn smiles. "Yeah, I know you won't." He coughs into his hand and turns serious. "Okay, let's put the game face on. You ready for this?"

"OhhhHHhhh yeah!"

"Are you a winner?" He pep-talks me like some kind of coach.

"Damn right! I'm a winner."

"You sound like an idiot." Mordecai chuckles.

Lilith groans. "I think I'm going to throw up…" The bro-mance was excessive to her.

Brick holds his bowl out to her. "Want some popcorn?"

Vaughn opens the door for me and ushers me to go in. "Then go, winner!" He follows it up with a whisper, "I'll be here when you're done."

I go in, and for a moment I feel like those football players that steps onto the field at the roar of a crowd. 'Whooo! Go Rhys' they would yell! The trophy is in front of my eyes, and my eyes are on the prize! My eyes are on the chair!

The guy in the chair… is not Henderson.

Its Vasguez.

Good feeling's gone.

"Did he say 'Assquez'?" Brick asks.

"Vasquez." Mordecai replies.

"Assquez sounds better."

"You want me to call him Assquez instead?" Rhys asks.

"No. Continue please." Lilith glares at her friends and they shut up.

His obnoxious voice fills the office. "Good morning, Ryhs. Nice of you to walk in without so much as knocking. That's very rude you know."

I stare at him in numb, gaping, shock.

What the hell is Vasguez doing in Henderon's chair?

Why is there a nametag for Hugo Vasguez on the desk?

The man gloats in clear victory. "Oh, if only you could see the look on your stupid little face right now. Priceless. Considering how Henderson treated you like a little golden egg, I am willing to forgive your oversight of not even bothering to knock, but in the future," he puts his feet up on the desk. "Let's not have any more mishaps shall we? We wouldn't want our relationship as employer and employee to become… uncomfortable."

"W-wh-where is Henderson?" I stutter.

"This is what I'm talking about, Rhys. A complete lack of social graces. No 'Hello Mr. Vasguez', no 'Are you busy, Mr. Vasguez?', not even a 'May I shine your shoes for you, Mr. Vasguez?' I mean, hell, the least you could do is say Good morning."

"… Hello, Vasguez…" I growl.

"See, now was that so hard?" He smirks in victory.

"Now what is going on?" I ask.

"You are confused. I can see that. You probably came in here expecting a promotion, a boss that would tell you how awesome you are, and a big golden plack detailing to management how you secured an iridium mine with no cost to the company budget. Am I right?"

My stare turns to a glare. He got it perfectly.

He continues. He gets out of his chair and walks around the room. "Personally, I would have gone for a golden toilet lid. Gives my shit a royal send off, you know? Life is all about those nice little touches. But let me lay it out for you, Ryhs." He opens the blind to the window and right outside the window is Henderson.

Henderson is in space right outside the window. Damn… The man was incompetent, but at least he was an easy manager to work for! Also was an easy goal to replace.

Vasquez monologues, "Henderson is gone. Replaced. He had no vision and got in the way of men with vision."

"Men like you?" I accuse.

Vasguez sighs. "I understand if you have… animosity towards me. We've always been dogging each other, and a rivalry like that is so hard to lose." He sniffles like we're breaking up "I know it's hard. But everything will be okay!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself…" I whisper.

"You probably hate me, and that's fair. No harm no foul. Your thoughts are your own. I won't deny my thoughts toward you are… not as bright myself. But I think something that would be good for both of us is if we came to a simple understanding and put it all behind us."

Right… he only says that because he won. He only wants me to stop dogging him so he can have an easier time! He wouldn't be acting all high and mighty if I had gotten my promotion a day earlier!

Still, I push down my anger and try, truly try, to be reasonable. If he really IS my new boss… then it would be best if I gave him the impression I was accepting defeat. We've been rivals since the day we met, and both of us were aiming for the chair HE now has. "Fine. You win. You got the office first. Does that make you feel better?"

"Oh, it does. It really, really, really, REALLY makes me feel good to hear you say those words, Ryhs." He breathes in through his nose deeply and sighs like he is getting a breath of fresh air. Or having a nice cigar. "In fact, I think your promotion is still on the table."

Wait, what? I blink in surprise. Is he seriously being reasonable?

No. No. Something is wrong. He is a scheming jackass. Reasonable and jackass do not belong in a sentence together! There has to be a catch.

"You see, Rhys. Henderson needed a lesson in humility, and I think this experience will go a long way toward teaching you that as well. That's good. That's REALLY good." Vasquez sits back in his chair. "But there are still many lessons for you to learn."

Oh, for the love of… stop being such a high-handed little-

His terminal dings. He growls in frustration, clearly enjoying the moment with me, and clicks a button. "I'm in the middle of something! So you better have a good explanation for-"

"Yo, it's me, August! I'm calling about the Vaul-"

"August! Hold on!" Vasquez jumps up in surprise and brings the call to his ear. The speaker turns off and is transferred to his earpiece. "Yes, I was on speaker!... No, I'm not on speaker anymore… Well, I'm sorry, but I wasn't expecting a call while in the middle of a meeting! I'm a bit busy too you know! Yeah… yeah…" As I had been standing there the entire time, he points to the chair in front of his desk. I sit down. Sounds like it might be a while.

Vasquez continues talking to the August guy and sits at his desk to work on the computer. "Yeah… I'm in front of a computer. Getting the files now… Give me a moment… Are you sure about her credentials, this is a lot of money we are sitting on here!... Fine fine, if you trust the missus, then- No I'm not."

I can't see what is on the computer, but Vasquez reads the files and nods to himself before standing up and walking around the room. "Wait, since when has the deal jumped to ten-million dollars!... You cut her in?! Damnit! Look, I'm a bit short right now. If you're going to be jumping prices all over the map on me, I'm going to need another hour or two! Millions don't run like toilet paper you know."

Ten million dollars?! What kind of deal is Vasquez involved in?

Mordecai whistles. "That's a fair bit of money."

Like a shark, I smell opportunity.

I reach for the computer to turn it, but snap my robotic hand back just before Vasquez turns to look at me. I just raise an eyebrow at him, and he returns his attention to the conversation, believing he had only seen things.

Well, with him being jumpy like this, I'm going to need to be covert.

My cybernetic arm isn't the only tool in my arsenal. Its only half of it. The other half is much smaller, but just as powerful. My Echo-eye augmentation.

Echo is more or less the modern version of the internet combined with a radio.

I blink in rapid succession and my Echo-eye changes vision from normal to robotic. My field of vision goes orange, and the level of detail is enhanced ten-fold. I can zoom in and scan things into memory. I zoom in on the computer's reflection in the window, turn the picture around so I can see it more clearly, fix the errors created by the glass, and…

Damn, I can't see much. I can tell there are shapes, but I can't make out words. Is that seriously 3-point font? Didn't he know 7-point font is regulation? I turn off my eye and glance in his direction, he is still enthralled in his conversation, but can turn at any moment. So I conceal my cybernetic hand under the desk and hack into his computer. He already has it on, so the hack is as simple as plugging a finger into a port.

A holographic image of an operating system appears in my cybernetic eye's vision. Fancy thing about having an eye implanted directly into your skull. I don't need a computer monitor. I can let my eye see the operating system directly in the world around me like sitting in a holographic computer.

A car. Looks like he is spending his 'promotion' money on a new car.

A beach? Looks like a beach hotel. Thinking you will land some big money and go on vacation for a while? Bastard.

A Vault Key?!

"What?!" Mordecai, Brick, and Lilith ask at the same time.

"Yeah, a vault key." Rhys says coolly. "Kinda. Everything will make sense. I'll get to it."

I gasp and immediately turn it into a cough in my hand to cover it. Vasquez glances at me, but continues to talk in his ear-piece. I give myself a moment to still my beating heart and look over the details within my internal-Echo.

This sniveling, boss-stabbing little excuse for a termite has his hands on a vault key deal?! Some guy named August is fencing it to Hyperion from some archeologist whats-her-face and wants ten mill for it.

Some jerks get all the breaks…

Vasquez ends his conversation and returns back to me. I sit and raise an eyebrow like I've just been sitting here wasting my time.

"Ah… where were we?" Vasquez sits on the corner of his desk, a little confused.

"I think you were trying to lecture me. Something about my need to learn some lessons." By your holier-than-thou hands!

He eyes me skeptically, but turns it into a wide welcoming smile. "… Riiiiight. Anyway, Rhys. As I was trying to say, there is much for you to learn, but you are still a valuable asset and that is something I think is worth grooming. Everyone has their place, and it is only right you be placed in yours."

"Great." I smile. Its fake, but I still do have hope that-

"Which is why I am promoting you to the mailroom as an assistant."

I can practically feel myself turn pale. Did… he just…

No.

No, no, no! That isn't what he just said!

"I know, I know. I'm too generous. Truth be told, it's a step up from janitor, but I am a bit of a sentimentalist. You'll thank me later."

"Y-you. Wh-what, no! N-no you can't!" I exclaim in disbelief. ITS MY CONTRACT! ITS MY PROMOTION! I WORKED MY WAY UP TO WHERE I AM CLAW, TOOTH, AND NAIL!

"Yes, I can. I just did." Vasquez smirks.

"Assquez!" I stand up angrily. Assquez throws a fist, but I evade, spin around, grab his wrist, twist, and send him topling to the ground. I put a boot on his neck and flex my muscles. He cries for his mommy, and I sit in the chair I have just successfully conquered.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Brick laughs. "You called him Assquez!"

"You didn't actually call him that…" Lilith accuses Rhys.

"Guilty as charged." Rhys admits. "But I think it fits."

"Stick to the truth."

"Can't I at least tweak it?"

"No."

"Fiiiiiiine. Let me fix that."

Here is how it really went: "Vasquez!" I stand up angrily, but Vasquez hits me in the face, and knocks me backwards over the back of the chair onto the floor.

"Lesson Number one. Don't start lesson number one." Vasquez says darkly.

I spit blood out of my mouth, and he stares at the spot where my blood lands. Oh, I'm sorry? Did I just dirty your floor you dirty, shit-for-brains, murderous, scheming, son of a-!

He hits me again. "Lesson number two! Don't get to lesson number three!"

He goes back from angry brute to smiling politician. He fixes his tie that got slightly crooked. "Now, if I were you. I would drop the attitude, put your tail between your legs, and see this as an opportunity. An opportunity to start a new path, to learn lessons you clearly haven't figured out yet…" The welcoming politician façade is replaced by a dark, rumbling threatening whisper. "Such as not having me call security." He motions for me to leave.

At the rate of him swapping personalities I'm going to get whiplash…

I stand and storm out.

"I'll call you if I need a package delivered!" He calls to me from behind as the door slams shut.


	3. Chapter 2 - Oppurtunity

**Chapter 2 - Oppurtunity**

* * *

The door slams shut behind me and I… I can't move. I'm infuriated. I'm not a physically aggressive person. I talk my way through things, but for once I just want to take my hands, wrap them around a Vasquez doll, and squeeze until his stupid little eyes pop out!

If I move, it will be to kick something.

Vasquez and I go back years. It's not been pretty. We have had kind of a… friendly rivalry. Okay so maybe not all that friendly. Not since the weapons contract we joint-negotiated years back; but it's still a rivalry, and now he has one-upped me.

"So… not good?" Vaughn asks nervously.

Is my face that obvious? Who am I kidding, it is.

"Not good." I clarify. He flinches back and I realize I had a lot of bite to it. "Sorry… I just… lets go." I can't be in the same air as that guy anymore.

Walking helps me think anyway. Letting my lets go into auto-pilot and just feeling like something is happening sharpens my mind enough for me to think about this.

"But-but I don't get it! I thought it was a shoe-in!" Vaughn stammers in confusion.

"Yeah, well! It wasn't!" I shake my head as I snapped at him again. Damnit, I am NOT in control right now! "Sorry, just… I'm pissed off."

"I see that." He doesn't take it personally. "What happened?"

"Its… its-" ITS THAT DAMN VASQUEZ!

I see something to replace Vasquez's face, and I kick it. It's a poor innocent trash can, and it can deal with the fact that I need something in place of his ugly face!

My robotic leg goes through the outer layer of the trash-can and now I have a trash can as a shoe!

"AARGGH!" Damnit! I can't even take my aggravation out without screwing up! I shake the trash can off and stand there huffing and puffing angrily.

Aaand, now there's Vaughn and Yvette.

"Who's Yvette?" Brick asks with his mouth full of popcorn.

Yvette is my other best friend. She is not near to the bro-factor that Vaughn is, but she has been on our side from time to time. She's a lesser part of the team, but still important. Sometimes Vaughn and I need stuff moved around or obtained… without anyone noticing.

"You mean illegally?" Lilith asks in amusement.

"Actually, no. Legal. Just without our rivals noticing our movements." Rhys explains. "If stuff moves, people notice. Especially pencil pushers."

Yvette also hangs out with us at lunch and gives us information on who is getting what through requisitions in return for us paying for her lunch and a small cut into whatever contracts she ends up helping us with. It's like free money for her just to open her mouth, and it gives us a radar on what's happening around Hyperion.

Between her and Vaughn, we have eyes on all goods and money flow across Hyperion. You want to track profits and deals? Watch the warehouses and movement of goods. Watch the money going up and down in accounting. Put the two together and you have all the pieces you need outside of actually being there.

I've also never been a physically aggressive person, so seeing me so angry has them on edge.

"Rhys?" Yvette asks cautiously. "Why are you wearing a trash can for a shoe?"

I close my eyes, breathe in, breathe out, count to ten, and plaster a calm smile on my face. I refuse to take my anger out on my friends. I reply cheerfully, "Henderson's dead."

"What?!" They both gasp.

"Are you sure?" Yvette asks.

"Oh, you could ask him- HE'S FLOATING OUTSIDE IN SPACE!" I yell-whisper. "Vasquez shoved him out an airlock and has been promoted to take his place in return for a-" This is Hyperion. Walls of ears! "a special contract."

Vaughn does the Vaughn thing of feeling sorry for Henderson and Yvette does the Yvette thing of looking at me skeptically and with a dose of scheming. Like a girl after my own heart.

"What special contract?" She asks.

Just the word 'special contract' is enough to put her, and usually us, in shark-mode. We see something to go after, so go after it.

Only this is Vasquez, he will be expecting it. He knows who we are and how we work. He doesn't know how good I am with my robotics, but he knows to keep from tipping off Yvette or Vaughn. Those two are our eyes.

Just the fact that she is the one having to ask that question shows she has no idea, and she's one of our two eyes. I guarantee Vaughn has NO idea, or he would be jumping on this faster than a piranha on a cow. With Vasquez's face on it.

Vasquez was careful…

He won't stop being careful until he is done.

We're being watched.

"I shouldn't explain here." I whisper. "Not with cameras here. Let's… just go do our usual thing and I'll explain."

Our usual thing is lunch in this case.

We head for the cafeteria, and Vaughn scuttles along beside us a little bit fretfully. "If Henderson's dead… then… we're next! Oh, God! We're next!"

"Not yet." Yvette replies. "Vasquez isn't that stupid."

We enter the elevator and I turn my eyes to my bro. He is genuinely scared… He's shaking. "Bro, Vasquez knows how good we are, and may want me dead personally, but you know him. He will want to do it slowly and to my face just to prove a point."

"That doesn't make me feel any better!"

I try to explain, "He won't do it, yet. He only just replaced Henderson. Killing the guy he is replacing is one thing. Killing one of the best in his staff on his first day is going to raise eyebrows."

"Wait, wait, wait." Mordecai put a hand up, stopping Rhys. "This is Hyperion. You kill each other just for looking."

"Yes, and no." Rhys replies. "Let me explain."

Getting rid of people in your way and replacing them with someone better is acceptable. Getting rid of assets is frowned upon. I think that's what saved me. If Vasquez had the balls or leverage, he wouldn't have demoted me. He would have just told me he was going to shoot me and then do it.

I'm too valuable to Hyperion for Vasquez to get rid of immediately. But that will only last until Vasquez gets this contract done and then is filthy rich beyond his wildest dreams. He needs either the leverage to brush my death under the carpet or to replace me with someone just as good.

Considering how I was just on my way to a promotion as the head of the head of my department, replacing me will take time.

We enter the cafeteria, get some food, I pay for Yvette as usual, and we find a spot to eat. The lunch is quiet and depressed, but also attentive. I have information to spill, and while we have been knocked down pretty hard, they are still waiting for me to say what I have to say.

I can't do that until we're clear. Too many people walking around us.

Lunch hour nears its end, and the people around us spill away.

"Okay, guys. Don't react. Last thing we need is Vasquez seeing your surprise."

"Is it that big?" Vaughn asks.

I nod. "His contract is a vault key."

To their credit, they do a good job containing their surprise. Yvette's expression doesn't change in the slightest, but if you look closely you will find she isn't blinking. Vaughn clenches his jaw, his eyes almost bug out, and he looks like he is going to throw up… or maybe that's just him trying to hold back the surprise by tensing up.

I manage to shove away my own feelings and eat my food casually. Except for the potato chips. I take a potato chip and EAT IT!

A vault key… That's big. Huge, even.

A couple of years back, a 'vault' was found on Pandora. A survivor of the finding said there was treasure and riches beyond imagining.

What little made it out of the vaults showed that the guy wasn't just right, he was under exaggerating. The technology pushed the galaxy forward a hundred years in two days!

This one man's eye-witness account turned Pandora into a modern gold-rush, complete with companies, armies, and intergalactic nations trying to get into a vault.

Its almost funny picturing entire nations trying to fit into a single door…

Lately the one to reign supreme over Pandora is the intergalactic Hyperion corporation. Before, it was four, maybe five, big names fighting over Pandora. Jack stepped in and conquered them.

To put it into perspective, a vault key could buy you a planet.

I look at my friends. "And we're going to steal his deal."

Yvette, normally, I would expect to have on my side. "Rhys, normally I would be saying we should go ahead, but this is big. A vault key? Vasquez will have support from the higher-ups!"

"Vault key or no, he just KILLED a guy!" Vaughn says. "Henderson may not have been one of us, but he was not one of the bad guys! We can't just that Vasquez get away with this! I'm in."

"Guys." Yvette shakes her head. "This isn't us three going against some guy who doesn't know we are watching him! This isn't the three of us teaming up on a lone fish out in the ocean! This is the three of us, an accountant, a requisitions officer, and…" She looks to me. "A guy who talks a lot."

Mordecai bursts into giggles and Rhys stops his story long enough to glare a bit. Mordecai says, "Oh, she has you pegged alright!"

"Gee, such a sparkling endorsement." Rhys mutters. "As I was saying…"

"Against a guy who KNOWS us, inside and out, and has the backing of HYPERION!" She stresses. "This is in over our head."

"Not unless we get our foot in the door!" Vaughn argues. He looks to me with a kind of righteous indignation. "Think about it, the one thing Hyperion cares more about money is vault keys! It won't matter WHO gets it, so long as they get it in the end. If we can just get our hands on it, then the table is turned!"

I nod.

Vaughn continues, "We screw over Vasquez. We get a vault key. We replace him, and possibly get promoted even higher than him. And not JUST Rhys, but all of us! We'll be the three presidents of the station in days! I'm in."

Vaugn puts his hand in the table, and I reply with the same gesture. But Yvette leans back. I can see she looks tempted, but she isn't putting her hand in with us at this point.

I lay it out for her. "Think about it. Screw over Vasquez. More money than we would know what to do with. We get to sit in Handsome Jack's chair."

"And we don't die!" Vaughn adds.

Oh, right. That might be important too.

"Yeah, and we don't die. Where, on the other hand, if we don't do this. Then we die anyway. You know Vasquez WILL kill us the moment he has the wiggle room to do it."

Yvette looks uncertain, and fearful. I understand why. This is big. This is the crossroads between running away from the wolf or sticking your hand in to grab him by the heart. A wolf with Vasquez's face on it.

Provided I stick my metal hand in, it doesn't sound too bad.

"I'm in." She sticks her hand ontop of ours.

The three Hyperionteers. Normally, I would say the guy won't know what hit him, but this is Vasquez. He will know what hit him and that will make it all the sweeter.

"So what's the plan?" Vaughn asks.

I explain everything as best I can from what information I have. I have the information inside my augmentations, and pull it up for reference. (It is so nice to have an operating system inside your eye.)

Vault Key. A guy named August. The meeting place is 'The World of Curiosities' in Prosperity Junction. Ten million dollars.

"So we need a map, money, and transportation." Yvette muses.

"Done." Vaughn says.

We look to him. "With what?" I ask.

"The money. The ten mil. Got it while you were talking."

Curiously, I bring up our bank accounts on my eye. Wow, he wasn't joking. His bank account just jumped ten million dollars, with a note to have it delivered to his door in a brief-case set to self-destruct if anyone besides him tries to open it.

Well, I'll be damned. Guess being an accountant means something.

Mordecai whistled. "Impressive."

"It was." Rhys smirked.

I stare at Vaughn a long moment and say with a smirk, "I have to admit… that was impressive."

"Thanks." Vaughn says with a smile.

"Which leaves transport to and from Pandora." I look to Yvette.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it… This is Pandora, so we will want something tough. Shouldn't be too hard to find. But it will take a little time."

"How much time?" I ask.

"For me to get us a ride, to and from Pandora, and one that can survive being there longer than fifteen seconds? AND to get it in position before security comes when Vasquez whistles? At least an hour."

Damn. Was kinda hoping it would already be ready.

"I will need to get my hands on the cash, and then convert it to something Pandora considers acceptable." Vaughn adds. "Gold?"

"No, make it eridium bars." I say. "Actually, no. That will be too obvious, and you guys want to move fast. The clock is already ticking since we got the ten mill. Yvette, get the ride. Vaughn, get the money and meet us there."

They stand and Vaughn has the cumpulsive moment to push his chair under the table. "What are you going to do?"

I smirk, "I'm going to cause a little distraction."

They look at me worriedly, but understand and leave to get to their part.

So… one hour. I need to keep Vasquez's attention off my friends.

Truthfully, I'm not going to cause a distraction. I'm going to figure out how to do it, then I'm going to do it.

Vasquez expects me to be in the mailroom, and with lunch having just ended a few minutes ago, might as well get walking in case he is watching me.

What would distract Vasquez… forget distracting everyone else, just him. I need a way to keep his attention on me and away from my friends. But he also isn't stupid. He knows Yvette and Vaughn are more of the worker types than I am.

The mailroom comes in sight and slow down a bit. I've been here plenty of times. I know the people, I know how this works.

I need to make the distraction personal. Vasquez hates me. He actually likes Vaughn a tiny bit and tolerates Yvette, but he hates my guts. So the way I see it, I have two options.

I appeal to his angry side. The guy used to work the mailroom. I might be able to find something… personal… to him in here and screw around with it. Maybe I'll find his old desk and draw massive rainbows or dancing elves on fire.

Or.

I appeal to his ego. He wants me to suffer. So I give him what he wants and turn this into his second favorite show, just after Pacific Blue.

I stroll into the mailroom like I own the place, and subtely glance at the cameras. I have expected them to follow my every move, and turns out I was right. I don't know if that's creepy in that I know the guy that well, or if I'm just that paranoid.

Anger or ego…

Meh, these people are innocent and don't need any heat. Better appeal to his ego.

I sigh deeply and look lost a minute. To be fair, I really am lost. They redid this place. I manage to find a receptionist and before I have time to ask where I am, the manager comes. Turns out I'm expected. He shows me to my desk, and I stare at it.

Yeah… There's no desk. There's a chair, there's a computer and paperwork. But no desk. I can just hear the guy chuckling behind the camera.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You want me to work on the floor?" I ask.

"I don't know, this is what I was told."

The camera shifts ever so slightly towards me. "By who?!" I ask incredulously.

"Higher ups, its beyond my prevue. I just do what I'm told."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I can't just work on the floor! Its bad enough that shit-for-brains beat me to Henderson's chair," Oh, just saying it is like a kick in the stomach. I'm getting lightheaded. I'm feeling woozy. Is my nose bleeding? "And that he demoted me to some… some FACTORY WORKER! No offense."

"None taken." The guy examines his fingernails, completely ignoring me.

"But NOW, NOW I have to work on the FLOOR?! How much lower does he want me?"

The guy is the epitome of not-giving-a-shit. Its like he hears this on a daily basis. "If you have a problem with management, you can make a formal complaint."

"Oh, I will." I answer.

He magically produces a piece of paper out of thin air and hands it to me. Or he already had it prepared. I think the first option is cooler. It's the formal complaint form. "Get writin'"

"Right." I turn to my desk, that still isn't there. "Wait, on what?! I don't have a desk to make a complaint about not having a desk about!"

I can just picture Vasquez laughing so hard he cries and falls on the floor.

"Then I guess you can make a formal complaint about that. Should take, oh… about two years."

"TWO YEARS?!" I yell. Really, that is surprising. Two years for a complaint to be processed is ridicules.

But rather than respond, the guy walks off.

"DAMNIT!" I yell. I do push myself to appear more angry and defeated than I really feel, but to be fair, I don't have to push myself much. I really am angry at the guy, and its coming through in my acting. Probably the one thing keeping this from being obviously fake.

I sit at my non-existant desk and mutter and grumble and try to figure out how I am going to do this. I try to get on the floor, but my robotic leg does not make it easy. There are limits to my augmentation's flexibility. I feel the difficulty and make a show of it being worse than it really is, and finally, after struggling and huffing and puffing and working at it, manage to get myself into a cross-legged position on the floor.

The camera is still on me. It's the only one not moving back and forth like normal.

But, as it turns out, being cross-legged makes it a pain to write. So I have to reposition myself on all fours with the paper on the floor.

Vasquez better like the view of my ass.

I write the complaint, and make a requisition order for a desk. I also make a side-note about Vasquez's mother. With that handled, I struggle to get off the floor and into a standing position. My robotics are good at many things, but getting off and on the floor isn't among them. Some amount of flexibility comes down to actual muscle and joints. But then, so far as I see, even normal people have trouble getting on and off the floor. Perhaps it's not just a robotic thing. Who knows.

Lilith grumbled, "Do we really have to go through how you distracted him for an hour?!"

Rhys replied, "Well, that was only fifteen minutes so far-"

"MOVE ON!"

Moving on.

Having successfully made an ass of myself in multiple areas, and given Vasquez lots of recording value if he is watching, I make my way towards where we agreed to meet up.

Also, for the record, if Vasquez wasn't watching and my whole charade has been pointless, then I will be humiliated.

I receive a message in my ECHO eye, and it's from Yvette. Our ride is ready and is sitting in one of the moonshot cannons. I worry briefly of the safety of sticking our ride in one of those, but the concealment and practically make sense. Provided we make it in one piece.

I am already here under the charade of delivering a letter, and I pass by the moonshot cannon enough to get a glimpse of Vaughn inside waiting for me. He urges me to 'come on'. I don't see Yvette anywhere.

Be more cautious and get closer without Vasquez noticing something is up?

Or hightail out of here?

A couple guards walk through the doors and one of them points at me.

Ah, screw it.

I run. I drop the mail and make a mad dash for the moonshot cannon. I leap across the ten foot gap into the inside of the cannon-

"Looks more like a two foot gap." Mordecai comments.

"-and land on my feet. Hey! Who's telling the story?" Rhys complains.

"You are. And it's a good one too. Full of talking and wasting of time. When do we get to the punching?" Brick asks.

"Do I look like the punching type?" Rhys lifts up his one remaining arm a bit under the straps holding him to the chair. His arm is a basically a stick. Even worse, he couldn't punch a stick if he tried.

"So no punching?"

"Don't think so, bud." Mordecai replies cooley.

"What am I doing here then?" Brick asks in aggravation.

"Because I asked you to." Lilith states in a demanding tone. Brick gets the message and cools down. Lilith glares at Rhys. "Continue."

"Not much more to tell really." Rhys shrugged. "The cannon sealed itself, Vaughn and I climbed into the container that had a car inside, and then 'BOOM'. Once we had the latch down we couldn't see out of it. No windows or anything. After that, we land on Pandora."

Rhys wasn't sure what to make of their reaction. Brick looked disappointed, like a kid being told his favorite story wasn't real. Mordecai was calm, relaxed in a dangerous way… like a snake, and while he was serious about finding the answers they wanted from Rhys, he was willing to take his time about it. Lilith though… she was a girl on a mission and nothing was going to get in her way, and the amount of time Rhys spent talking seemed to only annoy her.

"Look, I'm sorry if you don't like how long this takes, but it does come into play later." Rhys said, hoping to get her off his back.

After a few minutes of arguing among them, Lilith ordered Rhys taken back to his cell. Rhys was taken by Mordecai, who, seemed to be a good middle ground between Lilith's temper and Brick's aloofness. "Oh, one word of advice." Mordecai said as they returned to his cell. "Try to get a punching scene in there or something badass. Brick gets bored. And when he gets bored, he gets homicidal. He was thrown out once for being so bloody about it that he made Lilith and Roland sick."

Rhys cringed. The door slammed shut.


	4. Chapter 3 - Hi

**Note: One of the things I plan to do in my story is give Rhys a basic upgrade in psychology. Think about it… He started off with a big promotion. People might think its luck, and others skill. But Rhys and Jack I think would have as his motto: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.**

 **So in short, Rhys would need skills in order to be good at his job. And the most powerful skill a people-person can have is charisma, being able to read people, and psychology to some degree. Not near as much as a con-artist would need, but enough to be able to judge a situation when it comes to people and reach to them.**

 **Rhys in canon was kinda dumb in terms of this.**

 **So what I plan to do is make him better. He won't work miracles by far. No, he's still kinda dumb. But that is more because he lacks experience with the Pandora culture and people. So he will either miss the undertones or assume the wrong undertones. But at least he will be analyzing people and the situations rather than flying by the seat of his pants.**

 **If anything, I think that Fiora and Rhys are very very similar. They both have generally the same necessary skill. The biggest difference is that Fiora knows how to con Pandora and make fake deals . Rhys knows how to con Hyperion and steal deals. One is wild-west murderous people. The other is technological stock-market brokers/lawyers that worship a sociopath.**

 **So, long story short. Rhys will be smarter. He will be trying to analyze situations and people. He will fail at times. But at the very least he will be trying.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - Hi.**

* * *

Rhys awoke to a brisk sound outside his cell. It was a sound he had grown accustomed to. A part of him shuddered to think that the yelling and insane rambling of the people around him were things he could get accustomed to. As though that was normal. For Pandora, it may be. But then for the rest of the galaxy it wasn't. It was supposed to be normal to wake up to birds or a breeze or the sound of your siblings walking around and the smell of fresh baked bread. Not to wake up to people yelling about only God knows what, and to painful screams, and to marching of boots.

The sound of marching halted just outside his door and before Rhys had time to realize they were here for him, the door was thrown open and a huge bright light was in his face effectively blinding him. He had to turn his head away and close his eyes to keep from going blind. His eyes were adjusted to darkness, not to light. The next moment rough, gloved hands were grabbing him by the upper arm and practically dragged him out of his bed. He would have walked on his own if they gave him time to put his feet down, but they didn't seem to be obliged to such a common courtesy.

They dragged him out of his cell and into the hall before he managed to stumble his feet back under him and walk at a brisk pace with them. He was lead around blindly past one door after another before being twirled around, shoved down into a chair, and having tight metal monticules put over his wrist and ankles.

Another bright light was shoved in his face. He tried to pry his eyes open to see, but all he got was eyes full of water for his trouble as cold water was dumped on him. He coughed and had a little trouble breathing. It had come so unexpectedly he had his mouth open and was breathing the water in. He shook his head, but a hand grabbed his jaw and the person on the other end inspected him briefly before he found himself being slapped hard enough to turn his head violently to the side.

"You know…" Rhys spit out water. It tasted bitter, so it must have had blood mixed in. "I'm trying to be cooperative here. If this is your idea of cooperation, I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies."

"Pretty much the same way. Only with more pleasure for me."

Rhys opened his eyes to see Lilith and her little gang back in the same position as yesterday. Mordecai and Brick showed nothing, but Lilith looked like she had a certain… vindictive pleasure out of seeing him get slapped around and dumped with water.

"You look like you had a rough night." Mordecai observed.

"Gee, you wonder why?" Rhys glared at him.

Mordecai chuckled in mirth, "Yeah, stupid question calls for stupid answer."

"Are you up to continuing?" Lilith stepped in with the no-nonsense tone she has down pat.

"Whenever you are. Where was I?" Rhys wondered.

"You were just arriving on Pandora."

Ah, yes. Well, Vaughn and I were still inside the moonshot canister when it landed. The landing was rough and we must have hovered five feet in the air after the impact, only to land a second time. Vaughn and I had already secured ourselves inside of the vehicle within the canister, and after the canister crawled to a halt, we climbed out, hit a switch to open a hatch, and drove off.

The car was not what I would have gone for. I would have gone after Vasquez's new toy if I had any say on the matter, but Yvette had to play the smart card and not rub it in the guy's face. She's always been more about efficency and logic than about spite…

"People like that just don't understand a good torture…" Lilith comments with a smirk.

Rhys freezes, his eyes wide. He gapes and subconsciously leans back. "Ugh…" He says unintelligently. How are you supposed to respond to that? Right now this woman is the single most scariest thing in the galaxy.

"Keep going!" She snaps.

Right! The car was a kind of armored jeep. Seats for two up front, some space in the back with a small box, and high-density glass and thick doors. The engine sits in the middle of the jeep as well between Vaughn and I. Not sure if that is a safety precaution or what, but it definitely sounds cool. Like being inside of a fat-ass racing car-tank.

Vaughn and I carry on driving down a dirt road until we come to a fork. We lean forward to get a look at the writing and glance worriedly at each other. Two of the signs on the post are dangling, and only one sign is remotely stable. The whole thing is tilting and twisted and looking like it will fall apart on us. The slightest gust of wind makes it sway.

The worrying part is the bullet holes.

"Heh…" Vaughn weakly chuckles, trying to be brave. "Not even the sign survived…"

"It was probably some guy response to being nagged about asking for directions." I respond with a smirk. "Don't worry about it."

"Right… d-don't worry about it." Vaughn tells himself. He gulps and clutches the briefcase full of money tighter. "Where are we going?"

"Pandora." I respond sarcastically. "This big wasteland planet, biggest news since sliced bread, perhaps you heard of it?."

"I know that much!" He glares at me. I chuckle.

I pull out a map through my robotic hand's holographic palm and we poke at it. Unfortunately we have no idea where we landed. We know where we need to go, but we need to see where we are first to connect the dots. I go to get out of the car, and Vaughn about has a panic attack just from me having my hands on the door handle.

"Vaughn, dude. Breathe. We only just got here."

"Do you have any idea what the life time expectancy is on this planet?!"

"Uh… no."

"Six seconds! We've already been here six minutes! That's sixty times we should have died by now!" He yells.

"Ha, dumbass!" Brick laughs. "That should be ten times. I'm smarter than the nerd!"

Mordecai chuckles. "Right."

I shake my head. "I think you're exaggerating. If it was really that bad, you wouldn't have been cool with the idea of coming here."

"There is being here, and then there is being here inside of a tank!"

I eye him a moment and frown. "Not to be the bearer of bad news or nothin', but we can't make the deal from in here, bro. You're going to have to get out at some point."

"Then I'll get out when the time comes! Not before, not after. As soon as the deal is made, I'm running back in here until Yvette picks us up. Every less second I spend out there is another second I won't be dead, or shot at, or shot at and dead!"

I continue eyeing him a moment before shaking my head. Granted, I'm scared too. But we have to do something. We can't just sit here. I get out of the car and ignore the hitch in his breathe as the door is open. I slam it shut. I walk to the sign post and pick up the dangling corners. Three different towns in three directions and the one we need to head towards is on one of them.

Well, I know one point of reference, but the map could still be flipped on its head and have us going in the wrong direction anyway. I look in the distance for anything remotely telling. A mountain perhaps. Well, there are no shortages for mountains. However, there is a sun now that I think about it. With two points of interest we can figure out which direction to go at the very least.

I return to the car and peer in through the window. "Which direction does the sun go here?"

"I don't know, why do you ask?" Vaughn raises an eyebrow.

"Well, we know a city is that way, and the way we want to go is either that way or this way. We want to head towards the one to the west, but I don't know what's west."

"I don't know about the sun, but I do know the Hyperion sits on the southern polar axis. Its south of us." He smiles helpfully. I return his grin and smack the top of the jeep.

"Good thinking." I face Hyperion. If its south, than to my right is west. I get in the car and take us down that road. Vaughn flips on the radio and 'To the Top' by Twin Shadow blares through the speakers. However they barely have time to get past the first note before I punch a key myself to turn it off.

"Hey!" He pouts.

"Vaughn." I explain, "The last thing we need right now is our location being picked up off the ECHOnet. I didn't use a GPS triangulator in my arm specifically for the same reason."

"You think Vasquez will think to do that? He may be a scumbag, and got to where he is now through cunning, backstabbing, and dashing good looks, but you and I both know he isn't that bright."

"I know." I nod. "But just let me be paranoid and scared."

"Scared?" Vaughn looks at me curiously. "Of Vasquez more than Pandora?"

"I may not look it, but I know exactly how much everything wants to kill us." Even as I say so, we drive by a pack of… lizard-dogs chasing a man through the desert before jumping him like piranhas. I'm literally surrounded by death now, between a planet where everything wants to eat you and take your stuff against a guy who wants to shoot me and take my stuff while T-bagging me. Here, there are only two places. Pandora and Hyperion space station. Both are run by people that want me dead.

And to think… Jack had been here once. He was nothing. He was surrounded by a hostile Pandora on one side, a terrorist organization in control of Hyperion on the other. Jack had nothing but a few contacts and his wit, and he came out ontop ruling everything.

How hard can this be?

I continue with a smirk, "Wheras you are letting your fear shake you, dude. I'm focused. I'm in the zone. I'm in my element. Trust me."

"Uh, yeah. Sure." He responds with fair bit of skepticism.

"You are so full of it." Lilith groaned. She put a hand on her forehead and shook her head. "'I'm in the zone'? Please… You're just a Handsome-Jack nerd pretending to be full of bravado. Just hearing that hero-worshipping bull makes me sick. You would be dead now if it weren't for that car-tank you're in. I bet you wet yourself on your first fight!"

Rhys was silent a moment, ashamed of himself back then. Looking back… he was so different. He went to Pandora like a fool. He wasn't ignorant, and that made his decision foolish. "I was… But I also wasn't lying. I was in my element. I had a plan. Steal Vasquez's deal. Run away from anything that would try to eat or shoot me. I saw blood, and like a shark, I went for it. I knew I might die on the way, but I still saw a way out of it, even if that opening was small. I simply swam for it as hard as I could."

Mordecai, to Rhys' surprise, nodded in respect. Rhys didn't know, but Mordecai respected that determination to not just surrender, to fight and survive. It may not be a battlefield they wouldn't, or perhaps, couldn't, understand, but it was a battlefield of its own.

Where was I… Ah yes.

We arrive at the city in question. It looks like a place pulled straight out of a wild-west film. Everything is dirt, dust, wasteland, wooden, and had a population of thieves, scumbag, gangs, and a broken sign promising a bright future. Only instead of horses you got lizard-dogs with piranha teeth, and instead of the hootin-tootin six-shootin' weirdos, you got a city full of gangs with rocket launchers, automatic rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, pistols of all shapes and sizes, and the occasional machete. Your typical barrel of laughs.

Vaughn gulps at the sight of a bystander being kicked and beaten by a group of thugs while another group stands by and watches. Innocence of the bystander not-withstanding. To be fair, the guy being beaten is probably no better or worse than the ones beating him. Vaughn pales at the sight regardless.

I see him fidgeting and moving out of the corner of my eye and I glance over. He has his hands all over the briefcase. "What are you doing?"

"Setting a lock." After a moment, the bright light on the case turns green under his thumb. "So if anyone tries to steal it, well… let's not get into that."

"And what if I have to open it?"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." He tries to smile reassuringly, but the sound of another punch followed by a painful moan makes his smile drop. He gulps. "I-I just r-remembered that… you know… I'm kinda chained to ten million dollars. Do we have a pistol or something?" He glances in the back. I shrug.

"I have no idea. Best not to get back and look yet. And who would shoot the thing?" He looks at me with hope, and I return his stare with narrowed eyes. "Not a chance. I've never held a gun in my life, and finger-pistol fights are not the same thing. Bro…" I put a hand on his shoulder and smile to reassure him. "Relax, okay? We'll be fine. If worst comes to worst, I hit a button and get Yvette to throw down a loader bot on my location. It may leave our location exposed to Vasquez for a bit if he is watching, but that's a risk we'll just have to take."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, but I would still feel better just having something to defend myself with."

I stop at an intersection to let some people walk by. I smile to them pleasantly, and they sneer back. Nice neighborhood. I look every way, but I can't see where the place is to make the deal. The information says it's at a place called the Mansion of Mystical Mystery's.

"If it will help, there's a crate back there. You might find something." I gesture back with my head.

Vaughn frowns and thinks about it, and decides it best to crawl into the back of the car and look. I don't know what we got myself and I can't help being curious. "What we got back there?"

"Some food rations, a pistol with… one clip, toilet paper, toothbrushes, comb, shaving blades and cream-"

"Good to know we'll be able to go into a fire fight looking good."

"-a… uh… A water-filter! That what this is." I hear him continue to scrounge around and move items around, and he stops at something and climbs back to the front holding something in his hand. He is studying it closely. He has the pistol in his hands as well.

"You settled for the pistol then?"

"Yeah…" He puts down the mysterious cylinder and messes with the pistol trying to figure it out.

"That is not how you load a pistol…" Mordecai mutters. "Your friend is trying to put it in backwards."

"How the hell did you two survive here?!" Lilith asks in disbelief.

I gulp slightly at the sight of Vaughn trying to figure the pistol out. "Which end is…"

"My God…" Mordecai face palmed.

"Vaughn." I whisper urgently. "Is it on safety?"

"No idea."

"Then it's probably best not to be pointing it at your face." I whisper-yell as calm as I can while being a near-panic.

Vaughn freezes and his eyes widen fearfully. He gingerly holds it between two fingers, lowers the window, and tosses it. We both breathe a sigh of relief, only to cringe when the pistol goes off on landing. Followed by a guy screaming in pain and demanding to know who shot him in the ass.

"I think it's best for all of us if you don't go near a weapon again. I think this place is getting to you."

"Right, I know. I'm sorry! I'm just so nervous." Vaughn clenches and unclenches his hands to shake away the nerves, and resorts to leaning back and trying to be still as a statue to force himself to calm down. Just to be safe, I reach over and take the cylinder out of his lap.

No idea what this is, but with how Vaughn is a barrel of nerves, the last thing we need is to find out is that this is a lightsaber while he points it at his face.

I lean forward into the window to look around. "Its fine, just help me find this place. The Mansion of Mystical Mysteries? You have any idea?"

Vaughn helps me look as well, and after a few minutes, we come up empty.

"Perhaps we should ask for directions?" Vaughn suggests. "Perhaps someone here is… less savage." He says this while looking at a group of people standing around sharpening blades.

"What a wonderful suggestion. They have to know where this place is." I smile.

"Thanks, I thought so too." He smiles back.

"Any idea who our lucky not-so-savage is?" I look around.

"Hm… How about him?" Vaughn points to a guy at a cook-stand. "He has a cooking stand, so he must have a business permit."

"Sounds good." I park the car and climb out. I smirk with pride and stroll over. Vaughn hesitates to get out, but gathers him up little ball of courage and follows after me.

"Oh, this will be good." Mordecai chuckles mockingly.

"Finally we get some punching!" Brick exclaims.

"You're screwed." Lilith comments.

"You guys really don't have much faith in how I did, do you?" Rhys's eye twitches.

"Nope." The three of them say.

The chef is a scruffy looking guy in camouflage, several layers of jackets, and a few layers of dirt and scars. He has a five-o-clock shadow across his entire body, and I wouldn't be surprised if that is moss growing on his face. I haven't even glanced at his fingernails yet, and I am thinking I won't buy anything. The smell is bad enough.

He flips some meat on the grill and glances up at our approach. Not that he looks surprised. We parked a jeep-tank only a few feet away. Rather, he studies us from beneath his thick-eyebrows and I don't like it.

As an experienced shark, I know that look. You can tell a lot about people from how they look at you. I've seen hollow eyes from people who have fallen into a 'drone' mindset. I've seen exhausted. I've seen welcoming, bright, cheerful, innocent eyes filled with hope and wonder. I've seen the fake cheer of a money grubber that wants to be your friend while sticking his hand in your wallet. I've seen the arrogant, the humble, the friendly, the hateful, the welcoming, the unwelcoming.

His eyes are analytical. He's cautious and sees everyone, including us, in terms of predator and prey. His eyes fall on our Hyperion issued name-tags and his lips tighten in disgust.

I don't think we're going to get much out of him, if anything… I have a bad feeling about this.

Unlike me, Vaughn doesn't have my trained senses on people. Before I can stop him, Vaughn squares his shoulders, sets his jaw, walks up, looks the man square in the eyes, puffs out his chest, and says, "Hi,we'relookingfordirectionsperhapsyoucanshowuswheretogo?" In what amounts to a whimper while staring at the man's blood hatchet on his hip. Vaughn pales and swallows as blood drips from its sharp rusty edges.

The man slowly turns his eyes from me, around to Vaughn, up and down his body as if to ascertain just how scrawny he is, briefly pauses on the briefcase, and then back up to Vaughn's eyes only to stare so hard that my bro involuntarily takes a step back.

The would-be chef sniffs in disdain, pulls out his hatchet, and hacks down into the meat to effectively cut it in half. It was a thick cut too. I know it was a subtle threat that he can do the same to us, but I don't think Vaughn knows it was that way on purpose. My bro squeals and scoots over so he is half-behind me.

"Perhaps I can." The man finally says. He sniffs again and turns his glare to me, because unlike Vaughn, I'm not budging.

I really really really really really want to run for the hills screaming like a girl though.

"Where you folks headin'?" He drolls.

"Mansion of Mystical Mysteries." I reply.

"That there's quite a tongue twister." He dislodges his axe from the massive steak. "Mansion of Mystical Mysteries…" He hacks at the meat. "Mansion of Mystical Mysteries…" He hacks at the meat again, then picks it up to inspect it. Its cut into a nice plate-portion. "Has a funny ring to it."

"It does." I chuckle hollowly. "I'm sure it's part of the appeal."

"I'm sure. A place like that… hard to forget."

"So you know where it is then?" I inquire.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." He pauses, and his eyes briefly glance toward the briefcase. "You see, this mansion of yours isn't the only one with a nice mystery. I'm sitting here, being a respectable business man, when two… Hyperion's…" he spits. "When two Hyperions show up and start asking questions, while carrying some high-tech briefcase of their own. Now, you see… that there is the true mystery to me."

I smile even while my guts clench. This could be bad. "Well then, as respectable business men, I'm sure we can come to some kind of arrangement."

He puts his axe back on his belt and loops his eyes together. "Now, that there's a thought. And we're nothing if not business men, are we boys?"

At his words, a group of people from all around the block pick up their weapons and surround us. Vaughn clutches the briefcase to his chest tightly at the sight. The chef walks around his stool to approach us from the side. "So, let's do a fair little trade. Mystery for mystery. You show us what is so important about that box of yours, shorty, and we might-"

I step in front of him and glare.

Mordecai whistles. "Ballsy."

His approaching Vaughn scared the ever living hell out of him, and even if it's stupid of me, no one picks on my bro unless it's me. No one. He needs to back off. Now.

As soon as my knees stop shaking…

Despite my greatest attempt yet to appear threatening, the guy just raises an eyebrow. He sees me in a slightly new light, but still has us pegged as prey.

He raises himself up, shrugs, and sniffs. "Kill 'em."

Oh. Shit.

I wish I could say the next moment was… well. Heroic. It wasn't. To my credit, I didn't scream, squeal, or emit any kind of noise to humiliate myself. I was too scared.

I've lived on the razor's edge, in my mind, my whole life. Backstabbing coworkers, building up a team of the few people I believed I could trust with my career and my life, and watching my back and my team's back from hundreds of others all waiting to smell blood and latch onto the slightest weakness. Then if they finally do get you, they ruin you. They destroy your credit, your name, your career, send you into debt, and it's only the truly ruthless ones like Vasquez that would murder.

That's nothing. Because it's a whole new experience in danger to look into the barrel of a gun pointed at your head. It's a whole new experience in realizing how close death is when you have an axe being lifted off a guy's belt that is dripping in blood, and knowing that the next portion of blood will be your own. It's a whole new experience to hear the declaration of murder, and for it to be said so casually… as if it was like saying 'take out the trash while you're out dear.'

I thought I've been on the razor's edge… ha! I was a fool.

For probably the first time in my life, that life is on the line… and it terrifies me. Not scared or afraid, but as in actual terror.

I'm probably gaping and looking just as terrified as I feel. I also won't be needing to use the men's room for a while.

Only the feeling of Vaughn bumping into me to put a few inches of distance from the others breaks me out of my stupor. We're surrounded, and the only cover we have is the car. We don't have time to get in. The second-best option will have to do.

Not necessarily that is what I'm actually thinking. This is what my body is deciding on its own from instinct. My actual thought process is along the lines of 'WE'RE DEAD! WE'RE DEAD WE'RE DEAD WE'RE DEAD!'

I grab Vaughn by the collar and make a mad five-foot dash to the car and practically throw him under and roll under after me. The bandits around us pause, unsure what we are doing until we are actually under it. The next thing they do is surround the car and start banging on it and laughing and jeering at us.

Vaughn whimpers and says something, but I have no idea what he is saying. My mind is too busy running through options. Can't run. No weapons. Can't just sit here either because they will start shooting under the car as soon as they get bored. What do we have?

Vaughn threw away the pistol. There is a cylinder thingy on me, but I don't know what it is. And…

Yvette!

The plan was that if we needed help for me to open myself up to the holonet, broadcast my coordinates, and she would throw down a loader bot first thing armed with whatever she could get her hands on.

I broadcast my coordinates and nearly get a cuncushion as the bottom of the car bangs into my head. The bandits have resorted to jumping on it and calling us cowards and telling us to come out so they can kill us and steal our stuff, all while laughing and mocking.

The chef-guy stops by the car, with his boots only a foot away from my face. "Now, fellas. This just aint right, you hear! Stop wastin' our time and come on out from under there. Unless, of course, you'd rather us send Fido down after you."

Fido? Crap. A reptile-dog can get down here!

"Uh, no. Thanks. We're good." I reply. WHERE IS THAT LOADER BOT!?

"Alright. If you insist. FIDO!"

"Throw me in coach!" A high-pitched voice squeals.

… did Fido just respond?

"Down there is a chicken!" The chef explains to Fido. "Get the chicken!"

"CHICKEN!" Fido screams.

Without further ado, there is clawing and digging sounds as Fido comes in after us. Vaughn and I both look over our shoulders to find that Fido is, in fact, a little freak of nature with a mask. For anyone not familiar with Pandoran culture, the man is commonly nicknamed as a Lil' Psycho.

Not sure who pinned the nickname, but it fits.

"Oh, my gawd! What is that thing!" Vaughn screams. He knows what it is, but that's the terror talking.

"CHICKEN! CHICKEN! CHICKEN! I'M GONNA GET THE CHICKEN!" Fido screams and claws at the ground to get to us, and is making ground.

He manages to get closer to me than to Vaughn, and I kick at him. It does no good until I kick him with my robotic foot and it makes him disoriented briefly. But he shakes his little head and looks at me with red eyes. "I'm going to…" he roars. "LICK THE CHICKEN!"

Brick laughed.

Fido manages to squirm his way onto my and punches my chest repeatedly, vowing vengeance and mercy and hate and good, fun, happy times, somehow all at once; but then there is an explosive crash nearby that knocks the car away and leaves us in a small crater.

Vaughn coughs his lungs out, and I push a dazed Fido off me to see what happened. The car is on its side next to me, and half a dozen bandits are dead from the blast. The rest are dazed. As for me, there is a high-pitched whistle in my ears and the world is spinning.

The spinning stops after a few moments and I look up to see a robotic eye looking down at me.

"Hola."


	5. Chapter 4 - Let's Make a Deal

**Note: Here we get Sasha, Fiora, August, and the gang introduced. I hope I did them well. Remember this IS from Rhys' perspective, and I don't want him to be as openly engaging in having an interest in Sasha like in canon. I still plan for them to get together, but that will be a long time down the road. There is just too much animosity between their people's for it to make sense. You could go with the Romeo and Juliet approach, and have it fit nicely I imagine, but I'm not like that.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 - Let's Make a Deal**

* * *

"Hola."

All I can do is stare for a long moment as a red eye looks down at me. It's a loader bot… a Hyperion loader bot.

What is it doing here? I have trouble thinking. My head is pounding, my ears are whistling, and the world is spinning. I close my eyes and try to not throw up.

I hear Vaughn screaming, and I look over to see a bandit grab the briefcase, only for Vaugn to be lifted up with it. He has himself handcuffed to the thing.

Oh, yes! That's why!

"Loader bot." I look to it.

"Si, senor?"

Is that a yes? I point to the bad guys who are in the process of recovering from shock. "Kill the bandits! Protect us!"

"Como desées! Voy a golpear a los infieles!" I have no idea what he said, but I think it means yes. Seeing as how his arm spun around to change from a hand to a gun and started shooting.

Loader Bot was the pynical of Hyperion engineering combined with mass production. He has pin-point accuracy and the best weaponary money can buy. Suffice to say, the bandits didn't stand a chance.

I wish I could say I felt remorse for them. I didn't. They were Pandorans. They were scum, bandits, criminals. There was no justice here, so I was left to do my fair share. All of these people would have been executed if placed before a jury anyway.

Besides, its what Jack would have done.

I allowed myself a moment to smirk before blood exploded in the air everywhere the robot aimed. It was a lot of red… I had never seen people's insides suddenly become outsides so easily.

All of my brovado disappeared and my eyes widened in shock as I came to realize probably the worst thing I could have learned… how easy it was for a person to die.

It's too easy. Way too easy.

Sure, I've always known. I've never exactly been ignorant or completely innocent. But its another to see ten strong men torn limb from limb from projectile fire in a bloody mess of organs, limbs, and blood in a matter of seconds. These were people stronger than me…

I felt nauseus and weak at the knees. I didn't feel guilty for ordering the robot to massacre a group of people who tried to kill us. I didn't feel guilty of having been involved in killing a bunch of barbarians and savages. What I felt was an overwhelming mortality.

The Pandorans down the street hid and returned fire on Loader Bot, and the robot took the hits gracefully. Dents appeared across his surface, but it returned fire easily enough.

A girly-scream reached me from a distant alley, and I felt a chill go down me.

Vaughn.

I ran after the voice. I sped my way into the alley. Loader Bot noticed my departure and sluggishly clambered after me. Unfortunately the alley was too small for it, and it said something in Spanish… I honestly have no idea.

Around the corner was another bandit. He aimed a shotgun up at me as I turned the corner, and for a brief moment I saw a kid as scared as I was. I ducked like a coward just as a shot flew over my head, and I tackled him. The gun went rolling across the ground.

Hovering somewhere between fleeing for my life and terrified for my best friend, I kinda did both. I ran from the kid in the direction of Vaughn's scream. I ducked from gun fire, leaped away from knives and machettes, and focused on running as fast as I could.

The whole town had gone mad! Gun fire was everywhere! This wasn't about a group of bandits going after a briefcase anymore, this was a city-wide murdering spree! There was no law! Nothing! And that showed itself more than I had ever realised.

I was a fool to have come down to Pandora. It was a world of barbarians and cannibals and madmen. Only a guy as awesome, as resourceful, and as brave as Jack could have tamed this wild land. I'm just… Rhys.

Before long I came to sight of a group of Pandoran holding each other at gun-point with Vaugn being held hostage by one of them.

On one side was the bandit-cook with an axe. On the other was some scruffy looking young man with a pistol and a…

My brain momentarily freezes at the sight of her. I had expected a lot of things from this place in terms of females. Perhaps a wrinkled witch with a boil on her nose, or a warrior woman with a six-pack on both biceps… but she was strinkingly… normal. Kinda cute actually.

Lilith rolls her eyes. "Typical male. No matter what is going on, you still have to stop and check out who you're going to bang."

"Hey!" Rhys defended himself, pouting. "My thoughts were entirely innocent. I was merely surprised to see a female here who wasn't a complete hag."

"Do I look like a hag to you?"

"Uh… no." Rhys admitted honestly.

"Then what was that point of thinking all of us here are?" Lilith demanded.

Mordecai sighed and mouthed, 'She's very defensive about sexual sterotypes.'

"Sorry. I'm just saying my impression at the time." Rhys muttered.

"Well, its stupid."

"Yeah? But its honest at least. I'm not hiding my first impressions here." Rhys returned.

Lilith glared at him and said nothing more. So Rhys continued.

"Rhys!" Vaughn yells in relief.

The guy with the axe turns and backs up to keep Vaughn between both the young guy with the pistol and myself.

And the young guy with the pistol shifts just enough to be ready to shoot me at a moments notice, and the girl pulls out an smg and aims it directly at me.

Yeah, I was stupid to think for a moment she was normal. She may look cute and less savage than everyone else, but she is just as lethal and uncivilized.

I skid to a stop and raise my hands up.

"CHICKEN!" A high-pitched voice behind me yells and the lil-psycho comes running at us.

"You better stop." The girl momentarily points at the dwarf and fires at his feet. I feel the bullets brush by my face. The dwarf-in-a-mask jumps under a barrel and starts barking like a dog.

I don't know if that was luck on my part or skill on hers, but if her aim had been centimeters to the right, she would have shot me in the face. I feel the overwhelming sense of fear, mortality, and powerlessness return. My knees want to furiously shake, but I force myself to stand.

Vaughn is on the line.

We stand in silence, all sides measuring the situation. The only noise made is the sound of distant gun-fire and other people dieing as the whole town goes insane.

My mind goes into overdrive. This is as dangerous a situation as I have ever seen. Not outright dangerous as before, but dangerous in how it could go either way so easily.

The only sounds uttered by us is Fido's barking and Vaughn's faint whimper of pain and terror. His wrist is twisted at an angle that doesn't look natural and he is covered in bruises and dirt and scratches.

"It's broken." Mordecai comments casually.

Well, if they aren't going to say anything, I might as well do what I can to take control of the situation. At the very least I need to buy time for Loader Bot to catch up and kill these people.

What would Jack do?

Jack would turn his enemies into his allies.

"Okay. Uh-" Everyone turns their attention to me. I still have my hands up. "Listen, this is all one giant misunderstanding. All we wanted was directions. Vaughn and I didn't want trouble."

"You're Hyperion. You bring trouble just by existing." The girl says with a snide smirk.

Damn, she's a total b****.

"Regardless." I lower myself a tiny bit like a short bow. Hopefully making myself less tall and more at their mercy will help appease them. "Lets not do anything crazy. We're all adults here. So let's talk."

"Sure. Just talk." The guy with the pistol says sarcastically. The girl chuckles and the axe-guy shakes his head in disbelief. Their guns don't waver.

"Hey, I know. Why don't we share our names? My name is-"

"Rhys. What do you think we are? Children?" The girl responds in aggravation.

I want to say, 'No, you're a bunch of uncouth, uneducated, uncivilized savages who believe in shoot-first and shoot-second.'

Rather I say, "No. I'm just trying to work things out. I came here to make a deal. All I want is my friend and the briefcase, and I'll be gone. I don't want to hurt anyone. If you want to show off your-" lengths… "skills, I'm sure it can be done when there are no more innocent bystanders."

"I would hardly call you innocent, what with calling down that robot." Axe-guy says gruffly.

"That was you?" The pistol-guy raises an eyebrow.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

The girl though, she glances at Vaughn and the briefcase. "How much is in that?"

Of course. She wants a damn cut. An angry ember sits in my stomach. How much more will this day take from me? I have most likely lost what innocence I have left, I will have nightmares for the rest of my life, I lost my promotion, I've had to bow and suck up to just about everyone in the known galaxy, my best friend is between an axe and a pistol, and now I have to lose a few bucks.

A few bucks may mean the deal will be canceled or I may be called out for being a cheat, cutting the buyer off short. But then, the buyer is most likely Pandoran. I would be doing the galaxy a service to be taking a jab at the scum.

"A few thousand." I lie.

"Heh…" The axe-guy smirks. "Too heavy to be just that."

I glare at him. Why did he have to open my mouth!

"Did you just lie to me?" The pistol guy asks, a bit too casually as he slowly turns the pistol toward me. I take a step back in fear.

"Ten-million! It's ten-million!" Vaughn yells.

The girl looks slightly surprised, but merely smiles brightly and lowers her gun. She nudges the pistol-guy's pistol up so he won't shoot me. "Hey, August. Aren't we supposed to be meeting with a couple Hyperion for a ten-million dollar deal?"

I look between them confused, then my eyes widen in shock as realization slowly comes over me.

August? The guy Vasquez was talking to?

Them?

They're the buyers!? They're the ones with the vault key? They don't look like Vault Hunter material. How did they get their hands on one?

Wait. Stop Rhys. You can use this.

I show nothing on the outside, but I see an opening. A wound in the situation. I smell blood. And like a shark, I go for it.

Nauseu hits me. Okay… perhaps a blood and shark metaphor is not good for today…

As Jack always said: Luck is where preperation meets oppurtunity.

I pull up on my store of fake confidence and chuckle. "You? You're August?"

"Yeah, so?" August asks me. He lowers his pistol ever slightly due to the girl's words, and I see his brain working.

"Dude, I'm Rhys and this is my partner, Vaughn. Vasquez sent us." I drop the name Vasquez as proof. "You know… for the 'item'." I slowly drop my hands and make myself seem relieved. "I had a name, but I didn't have a face to put to it. Sorry, I mixed you up. We were just on our way to meet with you."

Axe-guy looks between us confused. Vaughn still looks terrified out of his mind, but better. He looks relieved actually… and… trusting. I've never seen him that confident in me. With both of our lives on the line, I'm literally riding the waves, and he is letting me gamble with our lives.

I don't know whether to love my bro more and appreciate the open trust, or feel terrified of having it in the palm of my hand.

The girl and August both look at me skeptically, but in two different ways. August is measuring the situation while the girl is analyzing… me. She doesn't trust me.

That is just great, but then, I need just one person on my side here. So I focus my attention on August more than his little ***** girlfriend.

"I wasn't aware Vasquez would be sending someone else in his stead." August replies. "He never said anything about you."

I chuckle. "That's Vasquez for you. He may be fine with getting his hands dirty, but he won't get acual dirt on them. Besides, there is a chain of command. As chief of contracts, this falls into my lap."

"Does it now?" August puts his head to the side, and nods. "Alright. I'll bite, for the moment."

The axe-guy makes a run for it and drops Vaughn. Vaughn falls on his butt alive and well. August holster's his pistol and motions for us to follow. The girl eyes me, analyzing and distrustful, but follows after him.

Situation successfully difused. Victory.

My feeling of victory is momentarily ruined by the sound of gunfire in the distance, and I remember Loader Bot. I whisper into my arm, "Loader Bot, find somewhere to hide nearby. We're fine for the moment."

"Entendido! Voy a esconderse como una sombra por debajo de la oscuridad! Nadie sabrá de mi existencia!"

Right. What he said. "Uh… I'll miss you too."

I help raise up Vaughn off the ground and we follow after August and his girlfriend. He shows us to a building that acts as a kind of museum. The front door has a panel on it that reads, 'Mansion of Mystical Mysteries'. I scoff and shake my head. All we wanted was to find this place. The bandits could have saved everyone a bunch of trouble by just showing us where it was.

The sight of blood and guts returns to my mind in full force and I stumble under the impact. I struggle not to throw up. The one thing I have never ever done, purposefully, is take a life. I've hurt people. I've schemed and clawed my way up to where I am, but I have never taken a life. That is a level that I feel is reserved for someone as heartless as Vasquez.

But now I'm no better… Is it because its really just that easy that I had myself fooled into thinking only bad people killed and murdered? Or am I just as bad?

"Rhys, you okay? You're pale." Vaughn whispers.

Vaughn shakes from the adrenaline rush, but he is still concerned with me. I shake my head and plaster on a fake smile. "I'm okay, bro. Just glad you're okay."

"I'm… not." Vaughn looks down in regret. "I couldn't do anything… and people are dead because of us."

"No." I assure him. "People are dead because of themselves. They attacked us."

He frowns in thought, but I don't know if he agrees. Regardless, he drops it and follows after August, who is waiting for us at the far end of the hall. "Take your time." August calls after us sarcastically.

"Don't mind if we do." I smirk. I let my eyes glance around. Seeing the exotic items might help me get my mind off of what just happened. The dead people out there… the… moving on.

The museum is little more than an assortment of dead animal skeletons and portraits of dead figures in history. I briefly read the panels of the animals out of a mix of curiosity and caution, as I might need to have some idea how dangerous they are if any pop up in the next… I don't know. Five minutes?

The people marked as historically important though, are mostly people I recognize, but from a polar opposite view of what I'm used to. Vaughn stops beside me to look as well.

The first ones I notice are Vault Hunters, and they are declared as heroes. They went out and destroyed great evil, Handsome Jack and the like. I can't help but chuckle because their own crimes are glossed over. I wonder what Jack would think of how they have him in history here. Granted, I know Jack didn't keep his hands clean, but he did great things and tried to tame the savage land. While the savages are depicted as noble.

Not sure whether to think them ignorant or hypocrites.

"Hey! I'm in a museum!" Brick exclaims in awe.

"Not sure how I feel about that, amigo." Mordecai eyes the life-like statues. "And what you mean hypocrites? You really want Lilith to kill you or something?" Lilith is too busy glaring angrily at Rhys to say anything. Rhys leans back away from her, a bit scared he might be pushing it with the story.

"It's what I was thinking at the time." Rhys explains.

Vaughn winces when his hand brushes something, and I stop to have a look at him. His wrist is getting a purplish color and looks really really painful, but he is doing his best to have a firm upper lip about it.

"We will need to have this looked at when we get back." I say as I hold his wrist in my hands and look it over. "I would do something, but I ain't exactly a medic."

"Heh… I know." He agrees. "You break a toenail and think it ruins your whole figure."

"Perfection is a delicate thing to balance."

August's girlfriend rolls her eyes. I look at her out of the corner of my eye. "What's your problem?" I ask.

"Nothin'." She turns and walks off, but now I'm pissed. What exactly is her problem?

"If anyone should be having a problem, its me!" I growl. She just glances at me. "You about shot me!"

"I didn't." She replies easily.

"But you about did!"

"And I still didn't." She answers again in a sing-song voice, not even bothering to look at me.

I puff up in indignation. Hearing her self-righteous bullshit makes me angrier, "What if you had! You would have killed me! Then how would you and your boyfriend get the money?"

She tenses briefly, and stops to look at me and her eyes sharpen in anger. "Listen, I don't know what you want from me. You want me to apologize for NOT shooting you? Fine, I'll shoot you right here and give you exactly what you want. Or, perhaps you should consider the fact that I have been a crack-shot since I was SIX! I don't want to hit something, I don't. I DO want to hit something, I do. I didn't shoot you because I didn't want to, have you thought about that Mr. Hyperion Bigshot!" She punctuates her point by jamming a finger on my chest.

She is briefly confused by the fact that her tap has a metallic clink to it, but she still glares up at me, and I just step back. I've never had someone this angry with me in my face.

Holy Jack! Pandorans are emotional! Yeah, I had a problem, but she is like an inferno! She's a banshee! I have NEVER seen anyone act out like this at Hyperion! People there have respect, use their indoor voices, and at times lash out in anger by writing up reports or make rumors to give you a bad name or just backstab you on a deal.

This woman is now the scariest thing on Pandora. Like an explosion or volcano going off in my face.

Wait… she… she didn't shoot me because she didn't want to?

A couple of August's stooges walk over. One has a mohawk going and is well built. The other has a goutee. Can't say anything special about them otherwise. The skinny goatee-one asks. "Anything going on-"

"Shut up." The girl flips him a finger. She is still glaring at me.

"Oh, dude. That just aint right. Did she just do what I think she did to me?" The other stooge asks his friend.

"I think she did."

The girl ignores them. At this point I'm backed into the wall. "You at least had the smarts to bring armor down here!" She continues, "Because here I was thinking for a moment that a couple of Hyperion's coming down here unarmed meant you were ignorant, foolish, or just plain stupid! And at this moment, I'm leaning toward all three! So you got shot at… congratulations. Welcome to your first day on Pandora." She pats me on the shoulder hard enough to bruise, making me flinch, and she turns her attention to Vaughn, who is hiding. Her banshee looks disappears and in its place is… a nice girl with bright eyes? She smiles warmly, albeit untrusting. "As for you, I think I know someone who can help you with that. Come on."

Vaughn glances at me and nods meekly. "Yeah, uh- sure."

Vaughn follows after the girl and I just stare at them. My legs won't move. Holy Jack… that was… I can feel my adrenaline going and it leaves me shaking. My fight or flight senses are tingling, and its leaning toward the run-like-your-ass-is-on-fire area.

Lost a promotion to my arch-nemesis, shot at, playing a part in killing people in a very bloody manner for the first time, having Vaughn put between a gun and an axe, being shot at again, and now being yelled at by the loudest banshee I have ever met… I've had a bit of a bad day.

I sigh deeply from the stress. "What's your problem?" One of the stooges ask me.

"Just… having a long day." I reply. "Damn she was… Is she always that CRAZY!?"

The guy raises an eyebrow. "You don't spend much time around girls do you?"

"That was actually very well controlled compared to most girls I know." Mordecai comments.

"Is that a pass at me?" Lilith growls.

Mordecai says nothing.

"Whatever." I ignore them and follow after everyone. I'm alive. I can't trust them, but I made it. I beat Vasquez to the punch. Breathe in, breathe out. Center focus. Eyes on the prize. Seal the deal. Then get the hell out of Pandora and don't look back, and just consider it to be one gigantic nightmare.

Let's go.

I walk down the hall to enter a fenced off yard in the back. There's a table in the back and some kind of trailer car in the distance. August is sitting on the other end of the table with the case of his on the table, which I'm guessing from his protective stance and the security built into the case that it is the prize. Vaughn is over to the side with August's girlfriend and… some tall woman in a cowgirl hat and vest. She looks like your all-around cow-girl actually.

She also has Vaughn's bad hand placed between her hands, and is talking with him. Right before my eyes, she shows interest in things she manages to figure out his interests like a psychic, shares a common interest in them (albeit a bit ignorant), and Vaughn calms down. I stop for a moment to be sure I'm seeing it right. Vaughn is a scared hamster half the time. He has more morals than anyone I've ever met and is equally scared by everything. Numbers is his safety net. Calculation. Odds. He has spent every second on Pandora jumping at every shadow, pulled around, shot at, and had axes and blood put against his neck.

And she's made him calm with just a few words. Something about that sends warnings in the back of my mind. Not the Pandoran 'I'm going to be shot at in the next five minutes' warnings (that I admittedly don't have), but the Hyperion kind. I may not have seen the bandits coming, but I know a social-engineer-type hacker when I see one. I run my ECHOeye and scan her face. I will want to have her memorized.

August's girlfriend suddenly tenses, and I glance to her. She does her best to not look back at me, and I raise an eyebrow curiously. Have they never seen an ECHOeye before? I turn it off. Last thing we want to do is scare them.

Vaughn actually smiles and blushes a bit under her rabid attention and rubs the back of his head nervously. They're talking about video games now. *SNAP* Vaughn squeals. He clutches his now-back-in-place wrist and falls to his knees.

"There you go, all fixed." The cow-girl says with a reassuring smile. I almost chuckle. I should have seen that coming. She got him loose and unexpecting for her to snap his wrist back in place. Not exactly what I would call medical care, but it works.

"Are we ready to get this show on the road? You know, sometime before I turn fifty?" August asks from the table. He's aggravated. He is barely showing patience at us wasting time.

"Ready when you are." I nod. I glance to Vaughn. "Bro, you good?"

Vaughn pokes his wrist, flexes it a bit, even pokes it. He still winces, but he doesn't look like he is in a lot of pain. He rolls his shoulders and nods with a… semi-relaxed smile. (As relaxed as he will probably be on Pandora.) "All good."

"Gre- what now?" August sighs and rubs his temples. His girlfriend is whispering something with the cow-girl and whatever it is she says makes the cow-girl tense up rigid. Her eyes widen briefly. A normal person wouldn't catch it. Not even my normal eye did, but my ECHOeye did. I narrow my eyes at her again, warnings going off in the back of my mind. Something is not right here.

August's girlfriend steps away from cow-girl and smiles. It is warm and dangerous at once. If I weren't watching for it, I would even say open, but there is a hidden nervousness in her that wasn't there before. August catches onto it as well. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothin'…" Realizing she is caught, she changes her tune. "Just a feeling."

A… feeling. I share a glance with Vaughn, and he shrugs.

"What kind of feeling?" August grows more wary, but not towards her, towards the situation. My skills kick in and tell me this is not a direction I want this to go. This is bad-deal country.

"Are we basing a ten-million dollar deal on feelings here?" I ask with fake curiosity.

"Nothing personal, Hyperion. But I've learned to trust her feelings." August says with more respect than I would have expected, but my warnings are still going off. If anything, it's worse now. She has stupid feelings, and he is trusting in them. We're so close! "What kind of feeling babe? Good, bad?"

"Not sure." She gulps. "Bad, I think." August looks at her heavily and she takes a step back from the intensity of his gaze. He is not happy, but he is also not arguing with her. Not arguing with the shooty-feely banshee girl is not good in my book in the middle of a deal! My life is on the line!

"Hey, it's okay." I try to reassure her. "You saved our asses, and I realize I… I acted like a bit of an ass earlier, but I am grateful you saved our lives. So… Thank you." I surprise myself with the sincerity of the statement.

They all (except Vaughn) stop to stare at me. Boom. They weren't expecting appreciation. Time to keep the momentum going.

"I know this may not mean as much to you, as you all live here and endure this kind of day all the time, but for us… its special. It's a terrifying unknown, and we came here to make a deal. The fact that we were willing to come all the way here and go through things we have never experienced in our lives hopefully should prove our sincerity. The cash is real. The vault key is real. The deal is real." August's girlfriend gets more tense suddenly, and the warning flags in my mind go from yellow to red. Something is VERY wrong. Unlike her, though, I am not going on feelings. I'm going by facts.

Okay, maybe its part feelings.

Wait… where's the cow-girl?

The red-flag is officially blinking in multiple colors.

"Agreed." August nods. "You guys went through a lot of trouble to get this done, let's do it."

"Yeah!" Vaughn agrees.

He plops the briefcase on the table and goes to open it at August's insistence, but I slam my hand down on the lid first, and sit down. Back in my element. "I know how this goes. First, introductions of the parties involved, then you show us the merchandise, then we show you the money. Let's not complicate a simple system."

August gets aggravated, but he pushes it back and nods with impatience. "I'm August, and this is Sasha." He motions to his twitchy girlfriend.

"This is Vaughn, and I'm Rhys."

"Okay. There is also a third party. She… she's not here." August glances around.

Sasha speaks up, "I think she went to the bathroom or something."

Sasha Mc. Shooty-Feely is covering for cow-girl… My ECHOeye twitches, but I keep the instinct to turn it on down.

"Whatever, her fault if she doesn't get introduced." August waves it off. "I'm tired of waiting. She was the archeologist who picked up the merchandise."

Wait… Wait wait wait.

Archeologist? Aren't they supposed to be like… antisocial? I've encountered a few. Pandora is a goldmine for members of the scientific community who can afford enough protection or have the wits to survive. They all have one thing in common. They are odd. They have trouble with engaging completely with people. They lack social skills and have oddities. In fact, it is these people that make up a huge portion of the market on Hyperion for people to be taken advantage of and backstabbed specifically because of their lack of social understanding.

Perhaps some good ones will still have average social skills, but I have never seen a scientist who digs in dirt or jumps in holes or stares into microscopes with the skills cow-girl had to calm down Vaughn.

I don't like what I'm seeing, but I don't show anything. I'm fully in my element. I'm in control, or trying to be at least.

August turns his safe towards us and flips it open, and all of my preconceptions disappear under the sheer glowing brilliance of the sight. In one moment, it was all worth it.

A Vault Key.

"Whoa." Mordecai sits up straight. Brick rubs his eyes at the sight. Even Lilith looks amazed.

Rhys smirks, "Beatiful isn't it?"

"I'll be damned. They actually got their hands on a Vault Key." Lilith mutters.

Rhys frowns and sighs. "That's when things went wrong."

Sasha slams the safe shut and pulls it off the table away from us. August stands up, understandably freaked out at this move on her part. He's completely out of the loop, and she is very unhappy. Now I'm unhappy. I glare at her. She's not running away from it, but she is trying to keep it away from us.

"What is your problem?" I ask, barely trying to keep myself from yelling and being unprofessional.

"Sasha!" August yells anyway.

"I-I can't do this. I am uncomfortable with this situation. Not with them." She backs away from us.

You know what. Screw it. "Look, I apologized for being an ass earlier and I thanked you for saving our butts! What more do you want from me? Do you want me to get on my knees and beg!"

"NO ONE DOES THAT!" She barks angrily. "And ESSPECIALLY Hyperion ore monkey's who would rather blow up a small defenseless village than talk things through!"

For a moment, all I can do is look into her eyes. Of all the things I expected to see, pain was not among them. There is a lot of pain in her eyes, and she uses it to make herself angrier and angrier.

For that moment, all I can do is feel guilty. Perhaps Hyperion has left a few innocents out in the dust, but that's just how the crap goes sometimes. No system is perfect.

She continues yelling, "You people enslave entire country-sides to mine your precious oridium, leave orphans out in the dust, and steamroll right over them! Why should we trust a THING you say?!"

August tries to get through to her, but she is outright ignoring him. Her attention, her anger, is on me. I'm wearing an Hyperion badge. I was about to be promoted to a semi-high position at the Hyperion station. I have Hyperion tech in half my body. I bow and worship at the feet of the almighty Jack and have a poster of him on my cubicle wall. Jack is my idol and I want to be just like him. I am as Hyperion as it gets, just short of wearing a Handsome Jack mask and being baptized into the 1337.

I take a step forward and endear myself to her. "Sasha… Shasha, listen to me. I know you don't trust Hyperion, but I am going to be upfront and open with you here. You have zero reason to trust us." She scoffs in agreement. "But the fact is, Vaughn and I. We aren't like those murderous assholes. Today is the first day I have ever been involved with death, and you and I both know it was pure self-defense. In fact, we are here trying to get back at one of those murderous assholes right here, right now. This deal is a part of that."

"Oh? So the deal has an ulterior motive? Why doesn't that surprise me?" She shakes her head.

"The guy we are getting back at murdered his boss just today and is about to kill more." Namely me. Sasha blinks in surprise. I continue, "and you know the worst part? The dead boss guy was named Henderson. Horrible poker player and had a tendency to ignore paperwork, but he was an alright guy in my book. We'd hang out at lunch sometimes. He was my boss too. He was my friend."

Okay… friend may be pushing it. He was a decent acquaintance, and being on his good side gave me certain protections. But he really was an okay guy. I'm almost sad there weren't more of him on Hyperion.

I may not be big on feelings and mystical forces or magic or astrology or any of that wonky bull, but I feel a genuine connection for a brief moment. Err… perhaps that's overstretching it.

We have an understanding. That's more like it.

"So. Sasha, you know what? Take the money. Give us the key, and let us screw over one of the biggest jerks on Hyperion. Please."

Sasha hesitates still, but I can feel she is on the edge. Almost… so close.

"So you're saying this deal will be used to screw over a Jack wannabe?" She asks.

A part of me flinches. Yeah, I would say Vasquez is a Jack-fan like the rest of Hyperion, but I'm not a particular fan of how she phrases that. Jack is my idol too, after all.

"That's exactly what we're saying." Vaughn adds his input.

She hesitates for a moment longer before smiling. "Okay, I'm sold."

YES! Rhys one! Sasha Mc. Shooty-Feely B**** zero! Vasquez negative-one!

Sasha walks back with the safe, but now its August's turn to hesitate. "Well… wait. Just wait."

Must. Resist. Urge. To. Facepalm.

What now?

Sasha hands him the safe, but he doesn't put it back on the table. Sasha says, "August, everything's fine now."

August sighs and looks confused and unsure. "I mean, I don't know… If you have a feeling."

"Yeah, and feelings gone. I'm good. Let's make the deal." She replies.

August looks between her and us, rubs his temple, and sighs. "I dunno… too many complications have come up as there have been."

I stand up from the chair and walk around to them. "Hey, hey. Sorry if I sound a little aggravated now, but didn't she just say the feelings gone? It's all good."

August shakes his head with increasing levels of self-assuredness. "No, no. I'm sorry guys. I'm not dissing on your efforts, but I am not comfortable anymore with this. I mean… the deal was with Vasquez, not his lacky. Sasha has feelings I've come to depend on, and… you know what. You were right about doing this right. I think we should hold until things are square."

"Honey, we're here. The money is here. The Key is here. Let's just do it." Sasha gently urges him from his side as he walks away.

"No, I've made up my mind. I'll put in a call to Vasquz, and we'll do this right."

This cannot be happening. This… CANNOT be happening! It's all falling apart!

Admittedly, my first instinct when I lose control and panic is not my brightest. However, tackling the guy may have been the stupidest thing I ever did. I blame it on the pent-up frustration of having been at the bad ending to perhaps the worst day of my life.

It was like one of those slow-motion replays you see in sports. We all were stunned and watching the moment in a mixture of horror, confusion, and shock.

The safe fell from his hands and clattered across the ground. The lid flew open. The Vault Key flew out.

And it shattered on the ground.


	6. Chapter 5 - All for Nothing

**Note: There is one funny phrase in here that you won't really understand unless you listen to the following song. Hehe.**

 **'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen.**

 **So whip that song out and play it when you see it being referenced.**

 **I also have a reference from Wreck-it-Ralph in here. Whoever finds it gets a cookie. :P**

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - All for Nothing**

* * *

"Honey, we're here. The money is here. The Key is here. Let's just do it." Sasha gently urges him from his side as he walks away.

"No, I've made up my mind. I'll put in a call to Vasquz, and we'll do this right."

This cannot be happening. This… CANNOT be happening! It's all falling apart!

Admittedly, my first instinct when I lose control and panic is not my brightest. However, tackling the guy may have been the stupidest thing I ever did. I blame it on the pent-up frustration of having been at the bad ending to perhaps the worst day of my life.

It was like one of those slow-motion replays you see in sports. We all were stunned and watching the moment in a mixture of horror, confusion, and shock.

The safe fell from his hands and clattered across the ground. The lid flew open. The Vault Key flew out.

And it shattered on the ground.

Mordecai gaped openly, Brick jumped up and yelled, "What?! It broke! It isn't allowed to break! I'll smash it before it breaks!", Lilith's eyes widened but she otherwise showed nothing as Rhys described the event, Vaughn gasped, Sasha muttered, "Oh shit…", August stared with eyes wide and jaw slack, and me… well… for me.

I watch my whole life go up in smoke.

See, here's the thing. Pandora was a backwater colony world. It was rich in minerals and was good farmland, but so were thousands of other worlds. But some travelers came across ruins of an ancient culture behind a series of gates that teleported you to another galaxy or dimension, and this ancient culture was found to be vastly more advanced than the modern United Systems Alliance. This is when Pandora was noticed. Pandora was on the front page of every newspaper for years. Pandora was the one thing people wanted to know about, to talk about, to gossip about. Heck, you couldn't sit on the toilet without guys in opposing stalls wanting to talk about it. Pandora became the galactic focus. The biggest names of the biggest names supported various efforts to colonize, take over, and otherwise do something about the gate dubbed a Vault.

Hyperion was one of many corporations to take a direct focus on Pandora. Dahl and Atlas were two others, and they both went bankrupt in the process. Bounty Hunters soon reversed themselves into Vault Hunters. Criminals were freed from every jail in the Systems Alliance with the idea to help with the Pandoran efforts. (It was dubbed as The Aragonian Community Service Act.) Everyone threw what they had at this planet.

The most important detail was that a Vault could not be opened without a Vault Key. There are a few of them found on Pandora, and anyone who digs one up can bring their chosen corporation-slash-sponsor to the top of the galactic market. Any system or nation would instantly have the technological advantage to become a galactic super-power. A Vault Key is worth enough money to buy yourself a vacation planet, fill it with strip models, and buy yourself an expensive battleship with enough money left over to let two generations of kids and grandkids do the same thing a dozen times over all while getting drunk enough to last the rest of your life with red eyes.

One key feature about the technology is that it is virtually indestructible by anything modern man can throw at it, short of a nuke, and then it only scratches the paint. So a Vault Key cannot be destroyed.

This Vault Key broke into a couple of pieces after falling two feet from an accidentally opened safe onto soft dirt.

This is not a real Vault Key.

Someone lied.

And I fell for it.

This day now has permission to be the worst day of my life.

Now, considering the fact that I still had August's waist wrapped in my arms after we both fell on the ground, I would think he would be angry at me for tackling him. He's not. The gravity of the situation (namely the Vault Key breaking into bite-size pieces) was a more pressing matter than the fact that I momentarily lost my mind. He slowly crawled out of my numb grip, clambered over to the Vault Key, and pick up pieces of it with such tender horror, confusion, and pain as if it was his dead puppy.

"Its… broken." He whispers.

I'm too shocked to say a word. I just lay there. All I see is the Vault Key.

Then August grits his teeth, and a fury starts in his shoulders and ripples up his shaking body up to his eyes. Whether that's information or his own sanity, something clicks in his mind. He looks up at his girlfriend. He speaks with a coldness that sends chills down my spine. His voice promises pain. "Where is she?"

As if to answer his question, we hear a 'clink' sound behind us, and we all spin around to find cow-girl holding the briefcase and inching away from the table. The only reason we heard her was because she backed into an empty soda can. We were so shocked that Vaughn had left the money exposed.

Cow-girl stares at us like a deer in head-lights, wide-eyed and frozen in fear.

August stands to his feet and whips out his pistol, cow-girl makes a mad-dash for it, Sasha runs the other direction, August's goons stand there confused as to which girl to go after because Sasha suddenly running looks suspicious or whether to stay and guard the two of us, and August just yells furiously while giving chase to cow-girl. A few guards make up their minds and split up to go after both girls while another one points his gun at Vaughn and myself.

"I'm confused… what's going on now?" Brick asked.

Rhys shrugged. "I felt the same way."

I don't know what the hell is going on anymore. All I know is I'm going to die. I grab Vaughn's arm and run in a random direction away from the lunatics. "Rhys! The money!"

"Forget the Jack-damned money! Just run!" I yell over my shoulder. I hear renewed gunfire nearby. With no idea whether stray bullets are going to suddenly hit us in the back, I cower and hide behind everything I can while at the same time just running with all the full-blown adrenaline-spiked uncoordinated terror of a rabbit being chased by a dog.

 _I'm going to die here._

The one goon that stayed to watch over Vaughn and I chases after us and fires off a shot before a bullet hits him in the neck from the side with enough impact to knock him over. Vaughn yells and stops. I skid to a stop and grab him by the arm to haul him up. A brief glance shows his leg is bleeding. He was fortunate the goon hadn't been aiming to kill, only to stop him.

 _I'm going to die here._

What would Jack do?

Jack wouldn't be running away. He would be running towards something to use to take revenge on the people he is making a strategic retreat from.

Right now, I couldn't be any more like Jack if I tried. I'm just running because I'm scared and I've gone into auto-pilot because if I take the effort to stop for a moment to realize the mess that is now my life… I would shatter just as much as the Vault Key. I can afford to have a break down later. Maybe with crackers and a cup of tea.

Vaughn cries out in pain with every step he takes as we run-slash-scramble away. He leaves a trail of blood behind, but there is not really anything we can do about that. He limps his way around the corner after me and stops momentarily to catch his breathe while leaning against a wall. His glasses are skewed, broken, and sideways hanging off one ear and his eyes are that of a wild-man, filled with mind-numbing terror.

I give him five seconds before we keep running.

Towards the town is a bad idea. We are wounded, literally and figuratively. We have nothing of value. We are defenseless since I told Loader Bot to go away while I take care of the deal. The townsmen will pick us apart and spit out our bones…

So we run in the opposite direction out towards the wilderness. Whether it be divine intervention, luck, or karma there is a vehicle sitting there nestled in a hiding spot. The door is wide open. "Come on, Vaughn!" I urge him harder.

I glance inside briefly, find no one inside, and jump in without hesitation. It's a one-room kind of camper equipped with a table, wrap around couch, stove and oven, a few single-beds in the back, a really small bathroom, and a driving seat. I hop in the driving seat and find the gas-meter is at full.

It couldn't have been more glorious and perfect if Jack had opened up the heavens and his Jack-angels had been playing 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen.

Vaughn climbs in on his hands and knees, panting from losing his breathe and pain. He shuts the door. I look over the switches and buttons. I find the on-button, smack it, and… nothing. The car needs a key.

"Jack-damnit." I hiss. "Vaughn, look for a key!"

"On it." He responds. I hear him fall on something and scramble around in the clutter looking for the key. In the meantime, I crawl under the panel. I don't want to just sit and wait for the chance Vaughn will find the key.

Odds are the owner has them in his pocket. No owner here, no pocket, no key. Sometimes I might be willing to play the odds and wait long enough to look, but not today!

Gunfire continues to go off nearby as I detach the bottom of the panel. Wiring and hardware and gunk fills the compartment. A dead roach falls on my face and I wipe it off, too focused on survival to be disgusted more than a millisecond. I reach in and get to work. My mind goes into overdrive in computer engineering and maintenance. There are problems all over the place. The speed processors are not aligned right, there are multiple modules in the wrong sockets, and there are chips all over the place as if someone was just punching them in with no clue what the actual problem was.

You don't put a DDR71-6400 in the same channel as a DDR72A-12800 and a LPZ! They aren't the same speeds or even the same technology! You keep out the LPZ and have the DDR72A in the head-socket with the DDR71 in the fourth channel! Amateurs! I want to face-palm, but I only have two hands, and if I don't fix this crap then we won't be getting very far very fast.

"Uh, Rhys. I think it's getting closer!" Vaughn exclaims in growing panic.

"Of course…" I mutter as I pull chips out, "There has to be a Jack-damned dark cloud in every single lining!"

I toss a chips and modules and cords out from under the panel. They were just getting in my way and they are completely useless. Half of the problem here is that there are so many cables and chips and modules taking up space that there is no wind-flow. There are also no fans that I can see, so the motherboards are going to overheat within seconds if I can't give this hunk of junk some proper ventilation. Oh wait, there's the motherboard fan. Its tucked under no less than six cords!

There is the sound of Vaughn falling and some clatter. The gunshots are getting closer. "Uh… Rhys." Vaughn says slowly, cautiously.

"I know!" I yell.

I briefly check where the cords in question are going, find them to be completely useless, and pull them out. The fan immediately kicks into gear now that it's not clogged up with junk and it blows hot air in my face.

Now that I can finally see properly under here and the system won't overheat or be under-clocked by bad maintenance, I look for which cord would run to the keyhole. If I can find it and plug it into my arm, then I can go into the driver program and kick-start it.

"Uh… Rhys!" Vaughn says more urgently.

"Shut up, Vaughn! I almost- There it is!" I reach in, grab the cord, and I feel a pair of hands on my legs just before I am yanked out from under the panel and the end of a pistol is pointed between my eyes and the cord is still in my hand… No longer plugged in.

There is a grandpa with a monicle on one eye looking down at me in controlled anger having a pistol at my forehead. I put my hands up in a defensive gesture, the cord still tucked away in my fist.

"Uh, hi?" I try. The grandpa-guy sniffs in derision, pulls me up, and shoves me. "Okay, okay, look, this isn't what it looks like."

"Oh? So it doesn't look like a couple of… Hyperion's are trying to steal my caravan?" He shoves his pistol in my back and I stumble forwards. Vaughn is sitting on the couch with his hands tied behind his back.

Yeah… great job warning me.

"No, no that's not it at all. You see what ha-AAAUGGGH-pened" I reply. I momentarily cry out in pain as he twists my hands behind my back and slaps a cuff on. "Is that-" The guy kicks me onto the couch face-first and I huff into its leather exterior. "What happened is what we were being shot at, we found a car, we want to get out of here. That's all!"

"MHmm…" The guy hums.

His eyes land on my hands and finds the cord tucked away between my fingers and he glares at me angrily. "What did you do?!"

"I can explain! I was fixing it!"

He looks at me in disbelief. "How stupid do you think I am?!"

Right. I would find it hard to believe as well. What kind of random stranger, running away from gunfire and looking to steal a ride out of there, would stop and take the time to do maintenance and fix his car.

Well, if you consider the fact that his ride looked like it would break down at any time, then it is explainable. But I think he isn't considering that. I peg him as the idiot who screwed up on the hardware I just unraveled.

Gunfire goes off just outside the camper. A few bullets punch the side of the vehicle just as the door is flung open. Sasha and cow-girl jump in and cow-girl spins, shoves the door closed again and throws herself against it to keep everyone out. Someone very angry shoves back to try to get the door open. I hear August yelling obsenities and manages to get a small crack open wide enough to stick the barrel of his pistol in and get off a few shots that bounce around the camper.

"Go!" One of the girls yell.

The grandpa is already on the move. He jumps in the driver seat, pulls a key out of thin air- Oh… shit. That won't work. He sticks it in and just as I thought… the car does nothing.

"Oh… Jack…" I close my eyes and mutter.

"Felix!" Cow-girl yells. She opens the door long enough to surprise August, kick him in the face, and slam it closed again. "Get it going!"

"I'm trying! I-" He stops, straightens up in realization, and spins around to me. The fury and anger is a living thing on his face. "What did you DO!"

And now everyone's attention is momentarily on me.

If this is the universe's idea of karma… I don't know what I did in my life to deserve this many death-defying moments in a single day. And if this is one giant joke where Jack comes back from the dead and goes 'Prank'd ya!' then… well. I'm not laughing.

"Like I said! I was trying to fix it!" I explain hurriedly.

"HOW IS THIS FIXING IT?!"

"I didn't have the key! So I fixed the ventilation, plugged the chips and memory in the right channels, I cleaned the gunk out and straightened out the-" August bashes into the door hard enough to knock cow-girl over and Sasha takes up position in holding him back. "I HOTWIRED IT!" I finish.

"Well un-'hotwire it' now!" Grandpa Felix (I think Felix is his name as he was addressed by it.) points his pistol at my face. "Or I will shoot you right here! That crazed lunatic may kill me and my girls, but I will go down knowing I took the bastard down with me who caused it."

I stare momentarily at him and the gun. Its not that I don't believe him, its that the reality of where we all stand hits me yet again and naturally my body decides it's a good time to hesitate.

Their life is literally in my hands, and… I don't know them. I don't like them. Hell, they have been at the main guests at the banquet we all would like to call 'worst day of my life'! But just… the idea that their life is in my hands… Just earlier today that meant less when I called down Loader Bot. But after seeing what Loader Bot did… I don't want to see anything like that again.

Never again…

"NOW, Hyperion!" Felix yells angrily.

"Right! Untie me!" I jump up as best I can over the junk. This place is really a mess…

Grandpa Felix grabs me, spins me around, protrudes a knife out of nowhere, and cuts at the strap around my wrists. He does it hurriedly and not so gently. He scratches my robot arm badly in the process, and I'm just thankful it's not flesh… He would have seriously cut into my arm. With my hands freed, he keeps a vice-like grip on my shoulder and throws me onto the floor where I was before.

"Fix it," Felix says. Is it sad that Felix is still the most reasonable guy I have met today?

Without further prompting, I crawl under the panel, stick one end of the cord back in the motherboard and the second back into the keyhole. (Taking the time to find the driver on my cybernetics would take much longer than using the key, and the guy would most likely shoot me for it at this point.)

"It's in!" I let him know.

He doesn't bother pulling me back out, just lands back in the seat, punches in the key, and hits a button. We back-pedal out of the rock encropping, turn, and speed off into the wilderness away from the gunshots and angry guys with guns.

Rhys stopped to catch his breathe and collect his thoughts. He had been describing his tale for a good bit already. It was a very… elaborate and complicated day, and it wasn't even over yet. "That's how it started." Rhys said.

"I'll be fair. That was a bad day. You started off saying 'Nothing can ruin this day' and then…" Mordecai shook his head in disbelief. "It's almost like you challenged the gods to prove you wrong."

Brick snored. He had his head back on the chair, his hands were together on his chest, and the gentle rising of his chest showed he was asleep. Rhys was unsure if he fell asleep from exhaustion, some kind of sleeping schedule, or boredom.

Lilith didn't have her 'I'm-a-pissed-off-little-B****' face on, but looked contemplative. "I don't see how your story has anything to do with what you did…" She remarked. Her dangerous eyes flickered towards him from the side. "How long do you intend to drag this out?"

"It all leads up to it, I'll get there." Rhys replied defensively.

"Not soon enough…" She muttered with a horrifying calmness. "Perhaps you might get the point if I remove the other eye."

Rhys gulped. He only had one eye. He also had lost his cybernetic arm as well. He didn't like the idea of losing the other ones. Mordecai yawned and stretched. "Well, its getting kinda late. Let's continue tomorrow."

"Earlier this time… If we do this at Cyborg-man's pace, then this will take a couple weeks."

Rhys shrunk in on himself with an innocent smile at her pointed look. Her pointed look turned to disbelief, "Seriously? It will take that long?!"

"No!" Rhys said quickly. "It-it won't take that long. Just… you know. A few days."

The red-headed Siren glared daggers at him, but didn't comment. She ordered the guards to take Rhys away. Before long, Rhys was back where he started every day for the last… who knows how long. With a prison bed and a metal door slammed behind him.

Rhys sighed and rubbed his head. Just where were Sasha and Fiora and Vau- no! Don't think about him. The memory of 'him' was still too painful. The pain was too fresh. Rhys knew if he let his mind drift in that direction, he would crumble in on himself and break. He needed to focus.

He sat on his bed and banged his head into the wall at how useless he felt, and at the mercy of the most cutthroat bandits he could have fallen into. Sure, he could have landed in a worse gang. Pandora was ruled by gangs and mobs and corportations. It was their version of nations and kingdoms across the territory. But Rhys knew the Crimson Raiders were special. Most gangs were honest. They hated you, you knew it, and they wanted to kill you. The Crimson Raiders were more likely to buddy up to him and backstab him if what he knew was accurate, and that made them a special kind of evil.

In terms of military presence, and perhaps 'nation' in any form, there were two types. Clans and Corporations. Rhys knew long ago how the Corporation politics worked, but he didn't understand the Clan part until he came down.

The major factions were the Atlas-hired Crimson Lance, Dahl-hired Lost Legion, and Hyperion, in terms of corporation.

The Crimson Lance were destroyed long ago from the efforts of Handsome Jack and various Vault Hunters, but then the Vault Hunters turned around and 'helped' the Crimson Lance. They became the Crimson Raiders and were given a home in Sanctuary. It was these people who Lilith ruled.

Rhys didn't understand how Lilith and Athena could possibly be on the same side then, as Athena was the main one to wipe out the Crimson with a vengeance, but he felt he didn't know the details.

But it was all very simple. Three armies hired by a corporation with the simple objective of ruling Pandora and being the one to claim a Vault. Not exactly complicated.

Then came the Pandoran politics… It was much more chaotic. The land was covered in gangs, mobs, clans, tribes, cults, and whatever else you could imagine. The men and woman to make up these groups were the original colonies, plus the addition of the criminals dumped on Pandora under the The Aragonian Community Service Act. The combination of villagers and insane, bloodthirsty, deranged criminals on death row was not a pretty one.

In the end, Pandora was ruled by a number of clans that held control of different areas. There was the Crimson Raiders, the Zaford, the Slabs, the Sawtooth, the Hodunk, the Bloodshots, the NailCoffin, and the Fleshrippers.

Just where were Sasha, Fiora, Skittles, Loader Bot, and Athena? Surely they had looked for him… But then, did they even know where he was? Did they assume he had died with everyone else?

A pang went through his heart at the thought that they might think him dead. Not just at the idea that he would receive a funeral and not be looked for further, but the pain they would go through. It would hurt them a lot. They had been through a lot, and Rhys didn't want to be the cause of more suffering. He hated seeing them cry.

"Of course… our 'relationship' hadn't exactly started off well." Rhys reflected. "Because the-"

-next thing I knew, I was being pulled back out from under the panel and was shoved up against the side of the camper by a very angry Sasha. "What kind of idiot are you?! How could you ruin EVERYTHING!" She yelled.

"Owowowow!" I yelped. She had my hand behind my back shoved up pretty far up. She was to break my elbow at the rate she was going. "Get off me you crazy b-"

"Sasha, what happened?" Grandpa Felix inserted himself.

"I'll tell you what happened, this Hyperion attacked August!" She hissed. "The Vault Key fell out of the safe and crumbled like a giant clod of dirt."

Felix looked at us long and hard, and I felt everyone tense. Vaughn and I were at the mercy of b****-one and b****-two and grandpa cranky-pants, while the girls looked like they were under him.

Wait…

Vehicle owned by grandpa crazy.

Grandpa crazy looked up to by b1 and b2. (b short for b****.)

B1 and b2 were in this together.

B2 having been the one to procure the Vault Key and bring it to August for him to sell to Hyperion.

The Vault Key that was fake, and it looks like August didn't know that, and for that matter… neither did Hyperion.

My professional sniffer smells a scam. I kick myself. 'Damnit, nose! Why didn't you smell it earlier!' I should have been more skeptical! I knew something was up the moment b1 and b2 were acting funny, but noooo! Ten Million dollars in my pocket and Vasquez on the verge of killing me next had me too blind-sighted.

"Tie him up." I barely hear Felix say. Horror takes me like I'm being dumped in cold numbing water, an d is then replaced by blood boiling fury because… they made a con, and it ruined my life. They are to blame. They started it all.

I may have yelled and ranted about how they ruined my life and tried to kick them, but I couldn't do much while being pinned to the wall. I barely remember the next hour.

As if that still wasn't enough, Vaughn came to a realization. We were shoved in the back corner tied up. I had my mouth gagged by Fiora (whose name I finally found out, after I called her a Pandoran b**** enough times), and my legs and hands were tied up. For extra measure they stapled my vest to the wall. Every glance I share with any of the three Pandoran's is one of outright hatred, and I glare at them with all of my pent-up frustration every time I get so much as a glimpse of their eyes.

Vaughn wasn't tied up at all. He was as quiet as a church mouse on Sunday, and just as meek and gentle and cooperative. Traitor.

Anyway, his demeaner became slowly more and more down as time went on, until at last, he just pulled his knees up to his chest and cried. Seeing my best friend cry broke me out of my temper, and after realizing a bit of how much of a total ass I was being I nudged him.

Just to be clear, I felt guilty about him, not the other three. I couldn't have given any less of a damn about the other three. I wanted them dead.

"We lost…" Vaughn muttered.

I couldn't say anything with the gag in my mouth, so I looked at him curiously.

"I mean… we could have won, so easily. But now we are on Pandora, and we have almost died several times already… Think about it, Rhys. It was just a scam they were playing, but we weren't the ones who originally bought into it."

I still look at him curiously. He looks at me and I see total defeat in him. "You don't get it… Hyperion bought it. They promoted Vasquez because of it."

'No, duh. Your point?' I try to convey as much to him with my expression. He furrows his brow at me and comments, "That just makes you look constipated." Right. Thanks, bro.

"Try and follow me on this." Vaughn whispers depressingly. "Imagine… we had done nothing. You had gone back to sleep and we went on with our day having simply… been hurt by what fate had handed to us. You didn't get the promotion… big deal."

I briefly am amazed. Just this morning Vaughn would have never thought losing a promotion was NOT a big deal. But then… morning-Vaughn hadn't been shot at, hit in the leg, taken hostage twice, had his wrist twisted-slash-broken, and having been scammed into losing his company a Vault Key and ten million dollars.

"Then what would have happened?" Vaughn continued. "Vasquez would have come down. He would have picked up the Vault Key-" my eyes widen as I begin to follow what he is saying. "and he would have been the one scammed. He would return with just a hunk of metal. Vasquez had bet everything on it, and he would have lost. He would have been hung for it. He would have been made out to be a gigantic failure."

I begin to hyperventilate. My skin feels tingly, damp, and cold.

"Vasquez would have lost…" Vaughn whispers. "Without Henderson, without Vasquez, you would have a free ticket straight to management. You would be the one standing in the chair tomorrow morning." The world spins.

"If we had just waited… just one day."

I promptly pass out.


	7. Chapter 6 - A New Day

**Note: As I was sitting down on this chapter, trying to figure out what was next, I came to a realization.**

 **I can keep this story entirely to Rhys' perspective. I aimed for it to be that way from the beginning, and I have kept to it thus far, but this also will cause the story to become confusing and a bit two-dimensional. The story is based on Rhys, but in order to understand how people think and change around him, I will need to leave his perspective and show things from Vaughn's, Sasha's, Fiora's perspective at times.**

 **So I have to decide whether to let the story have less quality, and some potential confusion and moments that don't make sense for the sake of what my original objective was.**

 **Or.**

 **Bend the objective to be less 100% Rhys to be more like 75% Rhys, and in so doing, create quality and understanding in the people around him.**

 **I think that's a no-brainer. I am held back by nothing but my own obligations, and I would rather make high quality and strong three-dimensional characters anyday.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - A New Day**

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

 **-Present-**

Being left in a prison for hours on end left Rhys an abundance of time to reflect. He had never been one for meditation or tree-hugging, but the simple act of stopping, looking back, and reflecting was how he chose to interpret it.

So many things could have been different. He was not one for fate or destiny or galactic, but he could see easily how that single day, nay… the moment he decided to fight back against Vasquez… was the single most important moment of his current life. Not important in the sense that it was important (being born, moving to Hyperion, and the raid on Helios was certainly more important) but important in the sense that he was the one in control and he had two very definite choices to pick from. Two completely divergant paths were laid out, and he chose one.

He could have done nothing. As Vaughn said, Rhys would have had a free ticket up to management as soon as Vasquez was revealed to be one gigantic fool. Hyperion would have checked the authenticity of the Vault Key in a lab before using it, or just used it in general. Either way he would have been screwed and Rhsy would have had a one-way ticket to easy street.

He also would have become more Hyperion in nature than before. Not that Rhys still didn't consider himself Hyperion. He was. Hyperion was in his blood, in his job and endeavors going back twenty-so years. But he would have still looked down on Pandora from orbit and placed himself on a pedestal above everyone else. Rhys considered himself, back then, to be a fair, somewhat humble person… but he couldn't escape the prejudices of dealing with 'Pandoran Scum'.

Now… Rhys was different. He felt different. What he had seen, what he had experienced changed him to his core. He couldn't recognize himself anymore, and as he looked into the broken mirror allowed for him… he didn't want to. All his life he had looked down on Pandoran's for their murderous nature… and now he felt lower than that. That was partially why he didn't put up a fight with the Crimson Raiders here… a dark, cynical part of Rhys believed he deserved it.

The ignorant had no idea how close to evil they truly were… How easy it is for a good guy to do evil things without even thinking about it.

And as he reflected, he considered the alternatives. He had chosen to go down to Pandora and go on the offensive. The result had turned him into a monster. But if Rhys had chosen to do nothing, and inevitably get a double-promotion simply because he was next in line… he wouldn't have been much better. He might have become even more corrupt as power was handed over to him.

Was his fate truly to become a monster no matter which path he had chosen?

Rhys sighed from the depressing thought. At the very least… it was a fun ride. It wasn't ALL bad.

* * *

 **-Sasha-**

 **-Past-**

Sasha sat on a stool and stared at the Hyperion named Vawn. (Vaun? Vawhn? Fawn? Something.)

Felix had said, as a child, that he would look up to the stars and describe the empty blackness give a feeling of insignifance. The galaxy was so big and he was so small. But that had been before Hyperion… because all her life she had been under Helio's eye. To children, Helios was a demon. It was the thing that ate up bad boys and girls, and it always knew. It was always in view stuck between the orbit of Pandora and the moon. If you were bad, then big-bad-Helios would drop a moon rock on your head.

Of course, Sasha was not a child anymore. She was in her early twenties. Growing up, Sasha didn't feel the galaxy was big, she felt it was puny. She was stuck in a cage. Everytime she looked up, there was Helios. And she learned that Helios was not a mystical demon born of nightmares, but an actual space-fortress filled with the Hyperion corportation. People. She knew that being people, they bled. She had killed plenty of people in self-defense over the years. But there was still a certain… mysticism to them.

The only Hyperion to come down were either slaughtered in hordes by the various armies that ravaged Pandora or were Handsome Jack, and Handsome Jack was nothing short of a legend. He was considered a god by his people and the worst tyrant in history to everyone else. Children were taught what was right and wrong with Handsome Jack used as an example. Hyperion, the people of Helios, all of them. Handsome Jack killed hundreds out of boredom on a daily basis, and thousands more when he had a reason behind it. He used entire villages and cities as target practice…

And it wasn't just… the destruction. It was the taunting. Jack had hacked into every ECHO-net channel there was. He was in control of communication. (Only a few could establish a private channel outside of his network.) and he made sure everyone knew exactly what he thought of you. Pandorans were bandits and unlawful simply for being Pandorans. Sasha couldn't deny a large portion of the population was insane, murderous, thieving, backstabbing, and generally gun-crazy; but Jack had a way of making you feel he knew you and he was talking about you.

Sasha remembered hearing the news (from Jack's mouth) of how a village was being bombarded from Helios, while Jack was munching on chips and freaking out at how spicy it was, and all because he wanted a new golfing hole.

He was a legend in his evil. He had a mystically oppressive presence that shadowed the entire planet, and his minions, his Helios, were equally mystical in a way.

She frowned in disgust towards them and tried to push away the burning hate and pain that sat buried in her. It was born of a life-time of being pushed into a cage, and caught her off-guard. She had never expected to meet living, breathing Hyperion's in her lifetime. She figured she would have been crushed under a Helios bombardment by now, perhaps shot in the head by a sniper bullet from a bandit.

She wanted so much to hurt them. To free herself of that cage, that fear, that oppression that kept her here, but looking at the two of them, she found she couldn't. The cyborg was… well he was a gigantic idiot and an ass. She could explain away (not forgive) his actions and words yesterday from having been on the losing end to a lot of very bad things. She could understand (not forgive) his views of them being pathetic Pandorans, as his tone implied as much, since he was, of course, Hyperion. He probably saw the world from Jack's psychopathic view.

But the thing that surprised her was… the concern.

The first moment she caught sight of the cyborg, he had been trying to help the other Hyperion. He put on a ruse of lowering himself, he apologized for speaking to his 'rescuer' in such a way, he was cooperative and open and humbled himself (something that took her off guard just as much as it made her wary) when she had tried to do something about the deal before. And then later, when things were continueing to go bad for him, he stuck by his friend.

The other Hyperion was thin, weak, gangly. Your general nerd. He had a wounded leg (Fiora wrapped it up) and cuts and bruises and a broken wrist. By Pandoran rules of survival, he was weak. He was an easy kill. Sasha would have figured the cyborg to leave him behind lest he be slowed down, but he actually went out of his way to push the nerd harder, to keep him going, to protect him. Glances were filled with concern and his stance at times had been protective.

Sasha figured that it was an act. The cooperation, the apologies, the humbling, the openness, the lowering of himself, it was all effective methods of social engineering. Fiora was a con-artist and Sasha picked up on a fair bit of it as well. She wasn't gullible.

But while all those things were an act, the parts that wasn't an act was his protective nature and concern for the other Hyperion, because those were moments that were… from a cynical perspective: stupid. Those were moments that would have killed him if luck didn't roll its dice.

And then the nerd himself… Vawn. Weak. Needy, screamed like a girl, didn't put up a fight, a coward… generally everything that would mean a very quick death on Pandora. He was not a being, a demon, to be feared. He was… actually kind pathetic at a glance.

Hyperions had a particular reputation and image made about them, and looking at the two of them she couldn't align that image with them at all. One was so weak, cowardly, and pathetic that she could scarcely believe him to be Hyperion. The other was protective.

She was curious. It wasn't every day you could look at the very persona of your greatest fear. So just as much as she couldn't just try to kill them, she couldn't just walk away either. She refused to relate, she refused to forgive and understand and consider them as anything less than the minions of Jack that they were. She was trapped here. Unable to do anything to them from confusion, unable to leave from curiosity, unable to stay and face the potential reality of how mortal and simply human they were, and unable to just sit and do nothing because they were Hyperion and they had screwed everything up.

The sound of Fiora yawning herself awake and rising up from the couch behind her, alerted her, but she couldn't move. She continued to watch the two handcuffed Hyperions sleeping in their own beds in the far back of the camper.

"You been sitting here all night?" Fiora stumbled over. She wasn't much of a morning person.

"Mhmm."

"I know Felix said to guard them, and shoot them if they cause trouble, but he also said to wake me up at some point for my turn. You need your sleep."

"I'm fine." Sasha responded.

Fiora sighed. "No, you're not." She leaned against the wall, roped her arms together, and looked down at her with a knowing look. Sasha pinched her lips in a fine line. She hated how easily Fiora could read her. "That was the longest con we have ever been in… you were with August for months. You can't tell me you're fine with how that ended."

Sasha glanced up to her sister. "That's exactly what it was: a con. Nothing more, nothing less. I feel nothing about it, if anything, I'm happy to be away from his trigger fingers and-"

Fiora frowned. "You're not as good at holding your emotions back as I am. I refuse to be attached, but you-"

"But I what?" Sasha challenged. She rose up and faced her sister. "But I'm not as good as you?"

Fiora stared at her sister for a moment and sighed with a shake of her head. Sasha grit her teeth in anger. She hated that superior sigh.

"Sasha… you're… You spent a very long time with him, day and night. You can't tell me that you don't feel something, even if it's just a shadow feeling that someone should be there."

"Don't pretend to tell me how I-" Sasha started to raise her voice.

"Enough."

Sasha stopped herself and turned to Felix. The old man looked exhausted. He looked on them firmly. "Sasha, get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us and we need to figure out what to do with them." He had a sharp glance toward the Hyperion. "With level heads."

Fiora smiled knowingly to Sasha, but Felix spoke up quickly. "That means all of us, you too Fiora. You are both to blame, not just Sasha. Sasha may have had a level of control on August, but she couldn't have foreseen the Hyperion's losing their heads. Fiora, you-"

"I was getting a-" Fiora defended herself.

"I know what you were doing. A device to stop his ECHO-eye. But the hardware is my area, not yours. You should have told me what you needed and returned quickly. Instead, as usual, you tried to handle everything yourself. I may be old, but I could easily have gotten close and planted it. The fact that you were gone for so long may have been the trigger for us losing control of the situation and making people suspicious."

"I could have handled it…" Sasha argued, unable to keep a bit of a pout of her voice.

Felix raised an eyebrow at her. "Fiora was the buyer in their eyes. She was the one who had dug it up. How odd is it for her to run off and disappear at the most important part of the whole deal? Hm? You tell me."

Fiora looked down, suitably rebuked. "Sorry…"

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Sasha. She's the one you left behind to handle a two-person job on her own."

Fiora hesitated, but did so. With apologies swapped, and everyone thinking a bit clearer after having defeat handed to them, Sasha went ahead and slept.

Truth was she didn't want to think about August. He had his moments, both good and bad. He may have been closed off and distant in bed (and smoked in it… a huge annoyance and source of their bickering), and he didn't hesitate to kill people for money, but he listened and relied on her judgement. To a degree, that was exactly the nail in the coffin for the con. The one thing that she perhaps truly liked about him, and she used it against him. She was just as much to blame as everyone else, perhaps including the Hyperions, and that was something she had refused to face just as much as she was unable to deny it.

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

 **-Past-**

I dream a nice dream. It's warm and sunny. I'm on an island that I own. I'm laid back over a nice bench working on a tan. Vaughn is laying in a beach-chair on my right wearing sunglasses and sipping a martini. On my left is Yvette in a small bikini reading a nice book. In front of me is Vasquez, bowing down, while struggling to hold three palm leaves and waving them at us like the pathetic little slave he is. The beach is not one made of sun, but is made of an enormous pile of gold, a whole mountain of gold! There are clouds rolling in around us we are so high on a pile of gold.

I hear footsteps and turn to see Handsome Jack approach, having just climbed up the mountain's 1000 steps of wisdom, just for my wisdom. I don't know what I tell him as he bows on one knee, but he thanks me and tells me how wise and powerful I am. Helios comes running to me like a dog demanding my attention and wags its tail.

An entire priesthood of Pandoran b1's and b2's bow in reverence around the mountain. B1 bows before me presenting a silver plate. I lift the lid. "Sandwich." B1 says.

I look at it in disappointment. "No, thank you. I'll have the roast duck. Take it away." I wave her off.

"The what?" She asks, confused at first, but retorts with a commanding tone. "Hyperion. Sandwich. Here."

She puts it on my chest, and I look down at it in disgust. How dare she speak to me in that tone! I snap at her. "Listen here, I said I don't want the damn sandwich! Go away."

"Uh, Rhys." I turn to look at Vaughn. "You might want to wake up."

I roll my eyes. "Why? What's the Pandoran B**** going to-" I wake up to food smushed into my face. A metallic plate rests on my side after sliding down my neck. Melted cheese is all over my nose down to my chin. The sun is bright and burning into my eye-socket. My arms are numb and above my head. Vaughn is sitting on the other bed, still not tied up, nibbling on a sandwich and appearing annoyingly meek.

"Wha-" I look around confused and try to sit up, only to find something is holding my hands above my head. I look up. "Why am I handcuffed to the top of a bed? Why is there food on my face?"

As if to answer every question I could possibly have about my situation, b1 is standing there looking aggravated at me. "Oh." Is about all I have to say. With an addition of: "Well, shit." I lay back and sigh. Here I was hoping it was all just a gigantic nightmare.

B1 looks down at me, her expression carefully blank. "Thought you might want breakfast."

"So you decided to feed it to me through my nose?" I demand incredulously.

She smiles smugly. "It's a good look on you. The cheese goes well with your two eye-colors, oily brown wavy hair, and your dashingly pale good looks." I glare at her and she just smirks. Well, two can play at that game.

"Look, if you want me that badly, you didn't have to go so far as to handcuff me in the middle of the night." Direct hit. It takes a moment for her to realize what I am implying, then her eyes widen briefly and her cheeks slightly redden in embarrassment and indignation.

She scoffs. "Please… as if there is anything to want after what I've seen."

I raise an eyebrow. What? Did they… no… they didn't. They had no reason to.

She continues, "Your friend over there had an injury to his leg and wrist, so to be safe, we checked both of you over." I tense up. Now I'm embarrassed. She leans down and whispers with a smirk, "Not impressed."

Before I have time to reply, she walks away. I look to Vaughn desperately. "Did they?" He shrugs apologetically, understanding my fear. It doesn't make me feel any better. If they had seen… me. If anyone had seen… what is underneath all these clothes… That's not the kind of thing I want people to know.

I'm not a freak.

Wait… why do I give a damn what they think? If they want to see what I truly am, then what does it matter? Not like their opinion means ANYTHING to me. They are the ones who made this con that ruined my life. The con I fell for…

 _"My life is over…" A young boy whispers._

My eyes flash open wide at the sound in my ears, and I shake it away. I will not go back to that! I refuse! I refuse to think about it. I refuse to remember what it was like.

Focus, Rhys. What would Jack do?

I look around, trying to see what I can use. What assets do I have at my disposal? Who is here? What is their relationships? Where are we? How can we get out of here? Where can we go? What are these people's objective, their aim, and their intentions toward us? So many questions jump into my head and I won't get answers to any of them with me being handcuffed to the bed.

Try as I might, its not just the imprisonment that refuses to give me answers, but my clouded thoughts. I'm hungry. My stomach growls. I haven't eaten since… uh… "How long was I out?"

"A whole day." Vaughn replies.

"I haven't eaten in two days, since the breakfast we had on Helios." I realize.

Two days on Pandora… I've been here two days.

The reality of it continues to become stronger with each passing realization of events. The reality that I am on Pandora. The mystery, the legend, the place everyone wants to control and be on. Celebetries came here at first, now just criminals, scum, and the murderously insane who belong in an asylum.

I lay back and sigh. I'm still alive. Vaughn is still alive. That counts for something. You don't technically lose until your dead. Then you can give up. So… I need to figure out what to do from here. We need a long-term goal to aim for, and a bunch of milestones along the way.

My stomach growls and I remember I haven't eaten in a while. Sounds like a good start.

"Um." I call out. "I can't eat with my hands tied up."

I hear the Pandoran's bicker amongst themselves about what to do with me. Felix is at the front driving the camper, b1 and b2 are at the couch, and their reaction to me is mixed. Felix wants me to eat, but stay tied up. Fiora suggests they force-feed me. Sasha can't be bothered either way, apparently she lost her patience with me. Then, of course, the idea of feeding me the food on my face with a spoon is impractical, so they figure it best to let me feed myself. Except they don't trust me.

Feeling is mutual.

Finally they decide to untie my physical hand, but keep my robotic hand hand-cuffed to the headrest. This arrangement is decided upon after they conclude that losing the blood-flow to that arm will be bad. My arm is completely numb and lacks proper bloodflow with it having been above my head for so long. Fiora reaches over me and loosens my hand up, and I try to flex it, only to gasp in pain as fire and ants cover my entire right side.

"That sensation is the feeling of blood flowing properly again. Should get better. I'll see about getting you something to drink." She explains neutrally, and walks away. All I can do is gasp in response. It stings! It takes several minutes before I can feel my fingers again, and am able to flex them. My robotic hand doesn't need bloodflow, so I don't care there, But holy crap that hurt!

"Here." B2 places a glass of water next to me in reach and walks away.

Only realizing now how parched I am in addition to hungry, I raise myself up as best I can, and chug it down in one gulp only to gasp for breathe after. I don't have an actual sandwich anymore, or a plate for that matter, but what remains of my breakfast is all over my face, chin, neck, chest, and sheets. (Which are actually quite comfortable considering my prisoner status.)

It's not a five-star restaurant, but I'm too hungry to care. I scoop it up and nibble on it. The moment it enters my mouth, though, I hesitate and look at Vaughn out of the corner of my eye, afraid to incur the wrath of our host. He smiles apologetically.

This tastes like crap… It is incredibly bland. No spices, no flavor, and its cold. I could have pulled something better out of the freezer-burnt section of my refrigerator. If I go another meal with this, it will be too soon.

After eating, I feel the effect of the last few days catch up to me. I'm completely exhausted. I pushed myself, physically and emotionally, harder than I have ever dreamed I would, or could, in the span of a single day. It's a wonder I didn't pass out sooner.

Nothing left to do but think, I roll onto my side, close my eyes, and turn on my ECHO-eye within the confines of my eye-lids. Judging from the distant murmurs of our captors, they think me asleep. Works for me. I was thinking of sleeping later anyway.

Its hard controlling an entire operation system without the use of my hands and with my eyes closed. I have to rely on keeping my back turned, moving my eye around, and blinking rapidly. It takes a while, but I get to where I want, and check my messages.

There are about a dozen from Yvette, two from Vasquez, and one from Hyperion Security.

Yvette's messages are short and sound worried. She has no idea how things are going with us, and is asking for updates. Towards the end, she sounds more and more depressed and certain of our doom. Then the last message is just one sentence.

 ** _Rhys,_**

 ** _Going underground._**

 ** _-Yvette_**

Something about the suddenness of it twists my gut in knots. Something is not right. Something is very very bad. It may be only two words, but it means that we can't rely on her right now, and that we shouldn't try to. She is hiding… Oh, Jack. Did Vasquez get to her?

I check the Vasquez messages. The first one is a demand to know where I am and where I got the balls to run off on my job.

The second one though…

 ** _Rhys,_**

 ** _Rhys, Rhys, Rhys. I'm disappointed. I truly am. I went out of my way to foster and give you a moment of enlightenment, and the first thing you did? You bit the hand that tried to feed you._**

 ** _Well, if there is one thing a proper circus animal handler knows how to do… its deal with beasts that don't know better than to do just that. You tried to screw me, well. It's only right I get a turn._**

 ** _No more playing nice._**

 ** _-Vasquez_**

I gulp as I finish reading it. We're there… I knew he would come after me sooner or later, just kinda hoped it would be later. Preferably after I had the Vault Key and walked into his office to shove my victory in his face.

With no small amount of hesitation and trepidation, I look at the message from Hyperion Security.

 ** _To all Hyperion Employees and Contractors,_**

 ** _As of , by order of Hyperion President and staff, the two following have been blacklisted and charged with treason, theft of company assets numbering in $10,345,180.99 (+$15.45 in labor fees for the writing of this email), and conspiracy to trade company secrets with rival corporations:_**

 ** _Rhys - Mail Room staff_**

 ** _Vaughn - Accountant_**

 ** _Yvette - D34 department Logistics Manager_**

 ** _-Hyperion Distribution of Information_**

I read it over multiple times, each time feeling myself become a shade paler.

My life… is officially over. I can't tell Vaughn, this news will destroy him. There is nowhere left to go. Even if we get off Pandora, there is only Helios here. I am stuck between Pandora (which wants to kill me) and Helios (which officially now wants to kill me), as well as my team and friends. There isn't a third party or side here. It's just Pandora and Hyperion. Jack made damn sure of that.

I… a part of me knows I can't give up. I shouldn't give up. But for the life of me, I don't know where to go or what to do or what goal to have. Vaughn and I can't survive on our own squashed between two sides like this, and no matter how much I rattle my brain or consider options, there is no where to go where anyone will hide us or have proper security for that matter.

It's not that I want to give up. It's not that I don't want to do something.

I just don't know what to do anymore…

I've lost.

I turn off my ECHO-eye and let myself fall to sleep.

* * *

 **-Sasha-**

 **-Past-**

"This looks to be far enough for now." Felix announced to anyone that listened as he parked the camper. Sasha stared out the window. Out at the boring… sandy… skeleton-infested wasteland. They were in the clear. There was nothing but dirt, dust, roaming wildlife, and skeletons as far as the eye could see. The skeleton was of a large creature, and it was covered in little beasts that were trying to peel the last of the meat off.

Felix stepped down and glanced to the prisoners. Sasha made sure to keep an eye on them. The four-eyed Hyperion was minding his own business and not making any trouble. The cyborg was more meek than he was earlier, even seemed somewhat grateful for the water and food after he had some time to cool down, and was now sleeping. Sasha was grateful for small blessings. She didn't feel like staining her bed with his blood if he decided to actually go psycho on them. Expecting anyone to go psycho was a built-in response she learned to develop when she was young.

"Fiora, outside. We have much to discuss." Felix didn't wait for a response for briskly walking out into the sunlight.

Sasha snapped her head up. She knew exactly what they would be discussing. First, where the money was. Second, what to do next. Third, what to do about their prisoners. "What about me?"

"Guard the prisoners." Felix said from outside. Fiora shrugged apologetically but followed after their adoptive father.

"I can discuss things too, you know!" Sasha yelled.

"And I said guard the prisoners, Sasha!" Felix closed the door, and Sasha huffed.

Guard the prisoners. Handle the gun. Make sandwiches. Clean. That's all they ever wanted her to do. She could do it well, but she was twenty-one years old! She was an adult! Why wasn't she allowed to help make adult decisions! Why did they still have to treat her like a damn child! It was ALWAYS Fiora that participated in discussions with Felix, always Fiora that made the decisions.

Sasha wasn't stupid, you know! She didn't need to be babied all the damn time!

Sasha could distantly hear Felix and Fiora talking, and the sound of their voices only made her angrier inside. She grit her teeth and turned away. She didn't want to be angry at the only family she had, but she couldn't help feeling like she was made out to be the infant here.

The cyborg-Hyperion was looking at her. Well, from the door to her.

"Want something, Hyperion?" She asked, letting her aggravation at her position show. She hoped he wasn't calculating how to escape out the door. What she really wanted right now was just peace and quiet to cool down.

"N-no. Nothing. Nothing at all." Rhys stuttered. "Just couldn't help but hear. It was kinda loud…"

She struggled not to sigh. Of course he did. Judging from how he was licking his chapped lips, he was still parched. Sasha got up and poured another glass of water. The tank had a built-in water filter and while Pandora was a wasteland, there was plenty of rivers to refuel by. On second thought, she poured three glasses. Vawn looked thirsty too, and Sasha's position by the window had been stifling hot.

"What kind of things are they going to discuss?" The four-eyed Hyperion asked meekly. She handed them both some water and returned to her spot to watch over them.

"Probably you guys." Sasha said simply. Vawn nearly choked on his water, and Rhys just stirred the water in his glass thoughtfully. He looked rather down. His eyes didn't have any of the spark Sasha had seen before. He looked like a guy who had been beaten repeatedly into the ground.

Vawn managed to breathe again. "What about us?"

Sasha raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You didn't think your position in me and my sister's bed would last forever did you? It's true, we ran a con. But the end result was very different than I'm sure either of us would have expected. Ten million dollars lost, vault key lost, and two Hyperion stooges in the back end of our ride."

Rhys's eye twitched and he looked thoughtful again. A brief bit of the spark Sasha had come to associate with him returned, but it was dim. "Sounds like you guys are in a tough spot." Rhys said neutrally. Sasha wasn't fooled, he was fishing for information. It was a similar approach she and her sister would have taken.

"Nothing for you to worry about." She replied. "You can worry once they decide what to do with you."

"You don't get a decision?" He asked curiously. She knew she shouldn't show anything, but she couldn't keep her anger at her position completely back. She huffed and turned away. Out of the corner of her eye, Vawn looked genuinely confused for a moment.

Vawn asked, "But isn't your gut instinct something people associate with you? Like the August guy?"

"Not everyone is him." She said. Thank God for that, even if she still wished more people did have a bit of August in them. Enough to at least consider her a person they could listen to and rely on. Of course… she also betrayed him. Probably means trusting her is a bad idea. She was a con-artist, after all.


	8. Chapter 7 - Decisions and Mistakes

**Note: An illogical part of Tales From the Borderlands, imo, is how the characters are surprised by Vallory and she is SUDDENLY a big bad villain.**

 **They had been doing this con for months. They may not have known the extent to which Vallory was involved (Felix knew all along, but didn't tell the girls) but they (namely Sasha) would have put the pieces together in some capacity. She had been in a relationship, most likely sexual, with August for MONTHS. She had his trust and confidence in her feelings and gut instinct. She proved herself to be a person August could trust emotionally and strategically, and let her run the store below their apartment (I'm just guessing they lived on the second floor). Not to mention, August was completely under Vallory's heel in her presence. Based on his personality he would have been in two extremes: A momma's boy or angry behind the scenes at the treatment. My personal guess is that he was secretly a momma's boy, wanted her to look at him as a son to be proud of, a rightful heir, and she didn't.**

 **There is no way Sasha did not know of August's plans in regards to his mother, or who his mother was, and she fed information to Felix and Fiona periodically.**

 **I also do not want to go with the whole… Bossanova thing… As amusing as it was, Bossanova happening to run across them, coincidentally getting the briefcase, and then taking them to a base of operations where there happens to be a secret atlast laboratory underground? From a writing standpoint, that's what I call random. Its like taking random words in the dictionary, pointing to it, and saying that is the name of your dog.**

 **I don't know which is funnier… The fact that I just googled 'random word' for the sake of it just to prove a point, or the fact that the word it gave me is: irony.**

 **I am also making this chapter shorter than normal. I want to keep it in context and end it at a certain point. The next ones will be longer. :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 7 - Decisions and Mistakes**

* * *

I try to get a bit more sleep in, but the eminence of our potential execution at the hands of our captors is ever present on my mind. Just outside, Felix and b1 are busy discussing where things are, what to do, and included in there… what to do with us. It escalates to the point of yelling at times, but I can't tell what the context is.

Vaughn must be having the same thought, because he whispers, "Rhys, what are they going to do with us?"

"I don't know…" I whisper back. I try not to let me uncertainty show, but I have nothing to stand on here. B2 is a bit disgruntled about something, and I think it relates to trust issues, but it's nothing solid for me to work from or get a bearing with. After considering the most likely options, I figure it best to be open about it. "They're Pandorans… they will most likely kill me."

Something unrecognizable flashes through his expression, but it changes to concern. "You?"

"I did badmouth them, and I was the one who tackled the guy back there."

"Yeah, but why wouldn't they kill me?"

I roll over and look at him incredulously. Is he serious? "This isn't the time to be making jokes, dude."

"I wasn't."

"… Do you WANT them to kill you?"

"Well, no. I-I don't, but-"

"But?" I demand, growing aggravated. What is going on with him all of a sudden? Does Vaughn want them to kill him?!

"Nothing…" His lips pinch thin and he turns away, ending the conversation. I stare at him a moment longer, trying to figure out what nonsense could be going through his head.

Minute later, the door opens and Felix returns, followed by b1. B1 requests for b2 to join her outside so she can explain what they discussed, and Felix walks over to us and looks down at me seriously.

I gulp. Vaughn shifts. Felix grumbles, "Hyperion, you made some good improvements to the camper. It runs even smoother than before I got it."

"Thank you?" I reply, unsure how to respond. I share a brief glance with Vaughn. He is also unsure what to make of it.

"Can you do it to other things? How good are you with machines?" Felix asks.

I frown briefly. So they want me to do some work? That's better than dieing. But what kind of work? "Pretty good, I would say. As you have guessed, I'm a cyborg. I had to learn how to work with computers and machines in order to repair myself."

He nods, seemingly content with the answer. He asks further, "So can you make things if told you to?"

I shift nervously under his scrutiny. He is measuring me. I am used to gloating, but I doubt these people will respond well to me inflating my ego. "Depends on what it is… but if you say what you need, I can tell you if I can or can't."

"And you?" Felix looks to Vaughn.

"He's good with-" I reply, but Felix snaps at me.

"Let him speak for himself!"

I nod furiously.

"And you?" Felix repeats toward Vaughn.

Vaughn nodded and said, "I'm good with numbers and money, mostly. I was an accountant. I am also decent with electronics, having helped Rhys many times. Not well enough to know what I'm doing… but… you know… to be able to help him."

"I see." Felix replies. "Next question, did Vasquez really send you two with the money?"

I stay silent, but Vaughn answers, "No…"

Felix looks between us and seems to consider his options. The silence drags on.

At last, Felix pulls up a chair and sits down before us. "Okay, then here is how things will work. You will work for me, you will help us, and you will do as I say. Make me happy, and I will free you to do as you wish." His eyes turn to dark glares, "If you make me angry, I will either kill you or sell you at ransom to Hyperion."

Vaughn whispers, "What if they don't want us?..."

"Then instead of ransom, it will be bounty." He says quickly. "Make no mistake of where we stand, Hyperions. I am what you hypocrites would consider a true Pandoran. I am a con-artist, but I am also a murderer and thief. And you…" He looks directly into my eyes. "You are my slaves."

Slaves…

The word makes my stomach drop, my heart squeeze, and my mind go numb.

I am Rhys. I was born of a couple of people who came here under the promise that their family would prosper. I have endured things that would kill most people. I aspire to follow in Jack's image of a simple guy ascending to greatness. I have schemed and stabbed my way through the treacherous Hyperion corporation up to a lower management position. I got my hands on a vault key, fake as it was. I had my hands on ten million dollars.

And I'm a slave.

Can't I go at least one day without life wanting me to kick me in the balls?

"Is it even possible to go lower than slave?" Mordecai wonders.

"Don't think so." Lilith replies. She smirks, "Sucks to be you don't it?"

As if it was possible, Vaughn looks even lower than he was before.

I don't have time to contemplate further the depth of how far I have fallen before he looms over me and is working at the handcuffs to my arm. He uncuffs me from the bed, and places the handcuffs on the intable next to me. "Don't even think about running either. We are out in the middle of nowhere, and any other Pandorans would kill you two on sight. At least with us, you are protected."

Even if its true, it is a pale comfort against the reality that we are slaves.

Although, what's the difference between a slave and a prisoner? A prisoner can't do anything and isn't allowed to. A slave, at least, can make a small something out of their situation, and if the guy is telling the truth, he will free us if we earn it.

Can we really trust them? Can we trust them to hold to their word? They're con-artists.

I take a brief moment to analyze the situation.

They are con-artists, but because of the way we all ran into each other and saw them for what they are, then there is a chance that any attempt to con us would be useless.

Trust them… Don't trust them… What would Jack do?

Jack would use this. I can use this.

See whether or not I can trust them to their word, then use that. Work my way up. If we can trust them to their word, then earn it. If we can't trust them, then hide in plain sight, gather information, and use it to turn the tables on them.

It's a small goal, but it's a goal none of the less. In the meantime, I can figure out what to do with my freedom once I have it.

As for Vaughn… Does he want to be a slave? Does he want to do what it takes to be free again? Would he want to return to our dream of sitting in the President's chair? Of ruling Hyperion?

I have a lot of things to figure out. Even though my position as a slave is as low as it gets, it is actually a small blessing. It will give me the power and ability to move, to think, and to act. As a prisoner, I can't do that.

 **-Sasha-**

"Slaves?" Sasha exclaimed. "Why should we have those two Hyperion as slaves!? It's demeaning!"

"It was either that, or kill them or free them." Fiona replied heavily. She didn't look like she liked the decision either. "We can't just let them go, Sasha… they're the enemy." Fiona looked to her sadly. "You know that."

She did. Sasha knew that very well. Fiona and Sasha knew very well what Hyperion's were capable of. It may not be spoken of much, but even with Jack dead, the Pandoran and Hyperion were still very much in a state of war.

Fiona further explained, "And we won't just kill them either. That wouldn't be in self-defense. It would be murder."

As much as Sasha wanted more options, that was another option she couldn't argue against. She had killed people. Plenty of people. But Felix and Fiona had been adamant about it only being in self-defense. Murderers… That was an evil they didn't want to become. Then they would be no better than the Pandoran criminals and psychos that made the world what it was now.

Sasha, Fiona, and Felix… They may be Pandoran, but that didn't mean they didn't see what was wrong with everyone nor had loyalty to anyone.

"But… to have and own slaves." Sasha argued weakly.

Fiona looked like she agreed, but wasn't sure what to do about the situation either. "Sasha… I agree. I don't like it. But… that's how it is for now. Once we are more on our feet, then we can figure out what other options there are, okay? Right now, we need to keep them under control and do it without crossing boundaries."

"Trying to keep from being murderers by becoming slave owners…" Sasha scoffed sarcastically. "Sounds like a wonderful trade of morals."

"We'll figure out if there are other options." Fiona assured her. "For now, let's get back in. We need to figure out where to go from here."

Fiona entered the camper again, and Sasha stood outside for a moment. She didn't yell outloud, lest her boiling anger be seen, but she did kick a rock. She followed her older sister back into the camper.

The Hyperions were sitting on the couch under Felix's scrutiny. Just looking at them made Sasha's gut twist, her anger rise up, and no small part of it was loathing for the position they were all put into.

Couldn't just let them go, wouldn't kill them, but would hold them prisoner over their lives and make them work… Sasha wasn't sure to feel better or not that they at least weren't sugar coating the situation and saying 'indentured servants' like the Hyperion probably would. Felix and Fiona were at least honest about where everyone stood.

Still didn't make Sasha feel better. She felt no better than… than a Hyperion. And she hated it.

Felix nodded as they entered. "Good. Now that we are all assembled, let's go over introductions."

"We've been introduced." Sasha remarked, not hiding her disdain for the situation.

"Then, we will be introduced, again, in a more civil and honest light." Felix said. "I am Felix. I am these two girl's adoptive father, and…" he looked to the Hyperions, "your owner. I am a con-artist, and if you were to pull up my rap sheet you would find a mile-long list. Overall, I do a lot of hardware work and planning, and I drive a hell of a lot better than these two monkey's." He smiled in good humor.

"I am Fiona, older sister. Con Artist. I don't have too much of a rap-sheet, but do have a bounty."

Felix looked to Sasha, and she sighed. "I'm Sasha. I cook. I clean. I shoot things and people who want us dead. I help my sis with cons. Take your pick."

Felix looked to the Hyperions, and they stared back. At last, the four-eyed one jumped and pointed at himself, "Me?"

"Whichever. Don't matter." Felix replied. Fiona chuckled behind her hand.

The four-eyed one, Vawn, if Sasha remembered right, jumped up rigid. "I'm Vaughn. Good with numbers… uh… Hyperion. Um." He looked to Rhys, and Rhys shrugged. "Hi?"

Sasha asked, "How do you spell that and pronounce it. For the life of me, I can't get it straight."

"V-a-u-g-h-n. Vaughn."

"Gotcha."

Rhys was laid back on the couch, relaxed. Probably the most comfortable he had been in a while. "And that would leave me, Rhys. R-h-y-s, incase you were curious."

"Not really." Sasha remarked, sharing an amused glance with Fiona.

Rhys kept going regardless, "I am a pure-blood Hyperion. My parents were Hyperion. I was raised Hyperion. Did the typical 'following in the footsteps of Jack' thing. Hell, if you checked, you would probably find half my body made up of Hyperion hardware."

"And you also like to exaggerate and push us into having a reason to kill you." Sasha supplied.

"Sorry, he does like to talk a lot." Vaughn said.

Rhys glared at his friend briefly, to which Vaughn did seem apologetic. Rhys just rolled his eyes and kept going, "I'm good with fixing computer-related things, and I was a bit of a deal shark on Helios. Similar to a con-artist, but with less lieing and more… pushing people out of the way. I guess."

"Lovely picture." Fiona remarked with a smile.

"Anything else?" Felix asked impatiently.

"Uh." Rhys stared at him blankly for a moment. "Yeah, not sure what else you would want."

 **-Rhys-**

I don't really know what Felix wants from me. Was there something in particular I was supposed to say?

Regardless, he continues with a look to Sasha, "Good, now. So everyone is up to date on things, the result of the con was not good, August has the money."

My eyebrows shoot up into my hair. August has the ten-million dollars?

Well, considering how reasonable the guy was and how he was just as much a victim of my captor's game as I was, then I can't say it's that bad. The money could have ended up in these people's hands… but then if it did, it would be in reach. Shit. That's bad. Vaughn's eyes also widen, but it looks more like fear than surprise. I look to him in concern and he pointedly ignores me to turtle up.

"But, it could be worse." Felix pulls up a chair.

"How could things be worse?" Sasha asks. "We have no vault key to sell, no con in play, and no money."

He shoots a sharp glance at her. "But what we do have is our lives. In hindsight, it is actually better that August has the money. That was his end-goal anyway. Actually better, considering there was originally going to be a cut for you, Fiona. So the buyer loses a fake-vault key, big deal. The goal for the client was ten-million split between you, and now she has all of it."

I raise a hand, and Felix looks at me. I say, "August was a guy. Don't you mean 'he'?"

"No, I don't. Okay…" He closes his eyes and sighs. "Looks like there is some explaining in order. August was the buyer, yes, but he is part of a larger gang run by his mother. The NailedCoffin. In gangs like that, money is everything. It gives you influence, power, prestige, honor, followers, workers, anything depending on how you use it."

Sounds like Hyperion.

"So far as Sasha's spying reported, his plan was to do two things with the money. First to attempt to screw his mother over by going on the offensive, or, to give it to her to gain her favor." Felix looks to Sasha. "Did he ever decide which to go with?"

Sasha nods. "Before the deal, we discussed it, and…" She hesitates and some emotion passes over her briefly. She looks down at her lap and fiddles with her hands. "I may have pushed him to gain her favor." Fiona frowns and looks to Felix. The two of them share a knowing glance, and I'm just completely out of the loop aren't I?

Felix muses, "With ten million dollars, Vallory will have the funding to start a major campaign on her rivals. Maybe buy a couple of Vault Hunter contracts."

Vaughn is now at the point of shaking and gulping and trying not to appear terrified out of his skull. I nudge him, but he doesn't notice. However, Fiona does notice. "You okay there, Vaughn?"

Vaughn's eyes widen like a deer in headlights. "Y-yeah! I'm fine! Totally fine! Everything's cool." He breaks out in a cold sweat and tries to avoid eye-contact. I probably should have trained him to have a poker face instead of just taking all his money all these years… He's always had a pathetic poker face.

Felix narrow's his eyes. "Vaughn. You're lying."

"Yep, I am definitely lying. A big liar! Hehe, that's all I am!" He tries to laugh, but only ends up coughing.

"Vaughn." I whisper, "What's wrong?"

"What?! Not-nothing! Nothing's wrong!" He gulps as everyone, including me, is now staring at him heavily. I have a very bad feeling about this. "Um… This Vallory person… how strong is she?"

"She holds one of the largest gangs in the area." Felix says flatly.

Vaughn's knees shake and clatter together and he bows his head. He begins to hyperventilate. I resist the urge to sigh or face-palm. Something is going on. And I need to know what… and I am the only one who can get him out of this. "Felix, uh… Master? I don't know."

"Felix is fine."

"Right, Felix. Shall we take this outside? He needs room to breathe."

Felix looks between us and nods. I haul Vaughn up and we go out the door. The outside sun is blinding and the air is dry, but Vaughn begins to visibly improve. I take him towards the back where there are no windows on the camper and gently push him down onto the ground. "Breathe, Vaughn. You're going to pass out."

He closes his eyes and struggles to breathe right. Fiona steps outside and leans against the camper a fair distance away. Close enough to do something if we run, but far enough to give us privacy.

I whisper, "Vaughn, bro, what's wrong? Come on, we aren't in immediate danger. If anything, it sounds like things are safe for them. Which means we won't be at the wrong end of their fury."

Vaughn shakes his head. "No… no no no. It won't last."

"Well," I admit. "Perhaps their good mood won't last forever, but-"

"No, you don't understand!" He looks up at me desperately. "Remember the money?"

"Yeah, ten million dollars. What about it?" I ask. "It's a briefcase of te-"

Reality hits me like a ton of bricks. A briefcase. A Hyperion-grade briefcase with security measures. Such as a bomb that Vaughn just so happened to turn on with his fingerprint to keep bandits from getting at it until the deal was concluded.

A bomb now in the hands of August's warmongering mother, Vallory, bandit lord of the NailedCoffin.

Now it's my turn to panic. "Oh shit…"

Lilith smirked, "So… that's what happened. I remember hearing about it. "

Rhys nodded, "Yeah… We kinda messed up."

 **-Sasha-**

"So… where we headin next?" Sasha wondered.

While it sounded like Vallory would not be after their heads, odds are they wouldn't be heading home again. At least not that home. They had a number of safe-houses across Pandora and would most likely set up shop in a new part of town until things calm down here.

"Not sure yet." Felix shrugged. He looked to her in concern, "But don't think I didn't notice your slip-up."

Sasha didn't want to talk about it. Sasha did want to talk about it. She didn't know, it was just… messed up, and it only made her angry. She hated it. She could only be angry at herself and it only made her upset.

He stepped closer. "Sasha? The plan was originally that he would go against his mother. He would make a grab for power. He may have had second-thoughts, but he wouldn't have reversed his thinking that quickly or easily. We both know August isn't exactly nostalgic or cares about people."

"You know nothing about him!" Sasha snapped. She stopped herself, only realizing what she said after the fact. Felix did not back off, but he did stop and look at her in a slightly new light.

"Sasha?" He licked his lips and said slowly, "Did you…" fall for him? Felix shook his head. "Why did you push him into changing his mind?"

Sasha looked down guiltily. Did their con start to mess up that early because of her? She was not as good at these cons as Fiona. Sasha was confident, but she wasn't ignorant. Fiona simply was a prodigy at these kind of things while she… just did her best. "I… I just didn't want him to throw away what family he had left. That… sometimes… maybe…" She tried to put her thoughts and feelings into words. "Family is worth more than money."

That most certainly did not look like the answer Felix was expecting. Sasha knew he was an old-fashioned Pandoran, so he might not see it in the same light as her. He had a wife and child once, and lost them to illness he couldn't cure as poor as he was. He was a bandit. He stole, he murdered, he did a lot of things in the old days he still wouldn't tell Sasha or Fiona. Money was everything to most Pandorans, so it was hard for Sasha to judge what he valued. Money vs family, how did they measure up to him? She was confident he valued family a great deal, they had been together through a lot, but there was still this dark part in his history that gave a tiny bit of doubt.

Sasha had always had Fiona, and they considered her to be young and idealistic, so her views were probably a bit different. She didn't care about money, not as much as she cared about family, security, and being free. Money was merely a means to an end, a method of achieving what she wanted, not the achievement itself.

Something flashed over Felix, something akin to deep guilt, but it quickly dissipated behind a trained poker face. "I see." He said neutrally. Sasha understood he wasn't sure how to respond. She wasn't sure what to feel to begin with.

Perhaps she had fallen a tiny bit for August… even if it was based on lies.

Thankfully, the awkward silence was broken by the Hyperions running in. Rhys looked like he was panicking and speechless, and Vaughn wasn't that much better. Sasha looked to Fiona, but she just shrugged.

"What the hell's gotten into you?" Felix grew terse. "Now you're BOTH panicking?"

"B-bomb." Rhys said. As though his braincells fell out his ears and he was only capable of explaining things in one word sentences.

If that didn't draw their attention, nothing else probably would.

"Bomb? Where?" Felix demanded.

"In the briefcase. With the money." Rhys said between panicked gasps.

The stunned silence was palpable. Sasha came to a conclusion that sent a furious anger through her veins. She raised her gun. Felix, however, got there faster. He grabbed Rhys by the collar and thrust him up against the side of the camper so hard the whole thing briefly tilted. "YOU PUT A BOMB ON THE BRIEFCASE THAT WAS MEANT FOR US!? That-THAT IS NOW IN THE HANDS OF THAT BITCH, VALLORY?"


	9. Chapter 8 - Mount Trash Part 1

**Chapter 8 - Mount Trash Part 1**

* * *

 **-Before-**

Thankfully, the awkward silence was broken by the Hyperions running in. Rhys looked like he was panicking and speechless, and Vaughn wasn't that much better. Sasha looked to Fiona, but she just shrugged.

"What the hell's gotten into you?" Felix grew terse. "Now you're BOTH panicking?"

"B-bomb." Rhys said. As though his braincells fell out his ears and he was only capable of explaining things in one word sentences.

If that didn't draw their attention, nothing else probably would.

"Bomb? Where?" Felix demanded.

"In the briefcase. With the money." Rhys said between panicked gasps.

The stunned silence was palpable. Sasha came to a conclusion that sent a furious anger through her veins. She raised her gun. Felix, however, got there faster. He grabbed Rhys by the collar and thrust him up against the side of the camper so hard the whole thing briefly tilted. "YOU PUT A BOMB ON THE BRIEFCASE THAT WAS MEANT FOR US!? That-THAT IS NOW IN THE HANDS OF THAT BITCH, VALLORY?"

 **-Rhys-**

"It's not… Like… It was meant… for you!" I struggle to get out while being held up by the collar and throat.

"Yeah, it was just a safety precaution!" Vaughn defends me. Fiona keeps Vaughn back, whether for his own good or to against him, I don't know.

Sasha mutters, "Typical Hyperion…" She actually looks genuinely hurt, like she expected better.

"Who the hell puts a bomb in the money that was going to be given in a deal to a buyer?!" Felix demands. "How stupid do you think I am!"

"I'll tell you who! Me!" Vaughn yells.

Felix keeps me pinned, but looks to Vaughn. I do too. My bro went from shaking and being a scared beetle to a guy who was yelling at people with guns having me by the throat. I realize they're angry, and probably feeling a bit betrayed that we were going to potentially blow them up after the deal. Vaughn continues yelling, "I'm a scared weezle half the time! I am easily controlled, I dreaded coming down here, I have done nothing but run, be taken hostage, and shot at. I scream like a girl. I took one look at how Pandoran bandits are, and activated a security measure to ensure that if anyone, except me, opens the briefcase, it would blow up. Smartest thing to do? Probably not. But I was too scared to think five steps ahead about you guys! I was too busy trying not to be sick at the amount of blood and death there was around me! Because we're Hyperion! Backstabbing people involves money, contracts, deals, viruses, and sometimes the less moralistic will hire assassins and hitman. It doesn't involve every person pulling out guns and shooting each other over who's shadow is longer!"

"Is that what you think of us?" Felix asks neutrally.

Felix's grip on my collar loosens enough for me to fall out of his grip onto the floor. He's a strong guy for being so old.

"Well, let me tell you something, Hyperion." Felix says, growing increasingly lower. Sasha lowers her gun and steps back, slightly scared of his temper like a rebuked daughter. Fiona isn't much better, but continues to stand between him and Vaughn. "Pandora was a simply colony world before you lot came here. We were colonists. We had families. We had farms and plantations and cities. Then you came here. These… contracts of yours? You exchange deals, and then hundreds of us die in your construction schemes. You make a wager, and then entire villages are uprooted and placed in toxic mines. Woman, children, elders. Doesn't matter to robots."

Felix walks up on Vaughn, and Vaughn loses what bravery he had and steps away from the towering elder with a barely controlled fire in his eye. I see a very dark past in there, a past yearning to break out on us, but won't, because at the same time I see he is very carefully controlled.

"Jack tunneled down nearly to the core of the planet." Felix says icily. "Your 'god' caused an explosion of eridium that eroded 1/9th of the planet. When anyone stood up against him, he bombarded their entire village from orbit while taunting them over the ECHO-net."

Vaughn falls back into the victim mentality I have struggled to pull him out of. Felix doesn't strike me as a bully, the guy is merely our enemy. But the effect his words have on Vaughn is much the same. Vaughn doesn't do well with bullies.

"We get it." I reply. "We're Hyperion, born and raised. You're Pandoran, born and raised. But his point was that our way of fighting is different. You shoot and kill and are bloody. We are not used to things like that." I cough. "We're not getting into the politics of the war between us, that would only get us shot. You hate us. We hate you. That's not news. But Vaughn really is an easily scared person, and in this case, his fear advised him to create precautions that are firing back in your face."

"Security is a good choice with ten-million dollars on the line." Fiona comments.

"Just who's side are you on?!" Felix exclaims.

"Uh, the realistic one?" She raises an eyebrow. "It was stupid of them coming down unarmed, but at least they made some kind of precaution." Sasha nods in agreement. She did make a comment about that the other day when we met. "As many things have gone wrong, we can't really be surprised. When it rains, it pours, right?"

Felix seems to calm down a bit from this. Her argument makes sense to him.

Fiona continues, "But, at least one thing came out of this. They set the bomb, they can be the ones to turn it off."

"WHAT?" Vaughn and I both yell at once. The former in panic and the latter in less panic and more surprise.

Felix looks between us thoughtfully, and strokes his chin. He doesn't have a beard or a cheesy french mustache, but he would be stroking them if he did. He sighs and looks to me. "Fine… can you track the money? Its Hyperion, you're Hyperion."

"Uh, I'm sorry, but labeling everything with 'you're Hyperion' doesn't solve everything you know!" I argue.

"Can you or can't you."

I think about it a moment and shrug. "Well… Yeah, sure. If I had the hardware."

"Guess being Hyperion does solve it." Sasha smirks. I glare at her, and she just smiles wider. I swear, she is pushing my buttons on purpose. Not that I… actually have buttons. I may be a cyborg but… never mind.

"Okay… Then this is what we are going to do." Felix pauses a moment and shakes his head in disbelief. "We're going after the damn money."

I let the plan trickle through my brain cavity and process itself.

We're going after the ten-million dollars.

Maybe Vaughn and I can still salvage something from this and return it, and get back our lives. Somewhat. Maybe. We do have Hyperion security gunning for us if we show our face, not to mention Vasquez, but hey… it's a goal right? Then again… we are enslaved by a group of Pandorans…

I'll figure it out after we have ten-million dollars again.

Felix takes position in the chair and turns the whole camper around. He seems content to not say anything more of the time being, and I'm fine with that. There is a fury in him that needs to cool down. Vaughn set the guy off. Seems we need to tip-toe around Grandpa Grumpy.

Sasha taps my shoulder and gestures me over to a chest. She kicks the lid up. It is a mess inside, and I can't help cringing at the sight. There is a mixture of hardware, modules, clothes, junk, rotten food, and general junk inside. My revulsion might be from being part robot at this point, so it's like seeing your own kind with its head on a stake; but come on! There's a green pizza slice shoved into a USC port! You can't clean that crap out!

"Think you can do anything with this?" She wonders.

I gulp. "I… honestly. I have no idea." I stoop down and pull a few chips out. I check them over to see how good they still are. "I might be able to make something, but not the kind of device I would need to track the money."

"Well, then how about this?" She opens a drawer and pulls out a silver cylinder. It looks like the same one Vaughn found in the car a few days back. "I don't know what this is, but it might come in handy. We found it on you."

She hands it to me and I look it over. "You haven't been able to turn it on?"

"No."

I hit the button and nothing happens. I look it over further and find a part of the cylinder that comes together is loose. I tighten it and hit the button again.

IT'S A FREAKIN' LIGHTSABER!

If… you know… a lightsaber was 3 inches long and was very narrow. I hold the button in, and it suddenly extends to 8 inches long. Sasha's eyes widen dramatically wide, and for a moment I can't help smiling. It's not victory, per say, but its feels good to catch her off guard and be the one in control, even if it's just a moment. She is not hiding her emotions at all. She loves it. You can see the sparkles in her eyes.

"I think it's a plasma scalpel." I suggest. "Useful for all kinds of things. It's a handy tool to have around."

"Definitely." She agrees. Her eyes don't leave the device.

Something clicks in my mind. I feel a deal here.

There are two kinds of profit. Tangible profit, like money, contracts, inventory. Then there is intangible profit, such as goodwill, customer loyalty, browny points. Tangible profit is usually associated with an exchange of value, that is relatively even. A dollar spent to get a dollar candy bar, for instance. But intangible profit doesn't work that way. You often have to give things out for free in order to get them to like you enough to come later and buy from you.

My instinct may not involve me getting back anything, but considering where we are… the situation we are in… Vaughn and I could use some browny points.

"Here." I hand it to her.

The gesture catches her completely off guard, again, and were I wanting to get back at her and tease her, it would be a great opening. (SO TEMPTING! But I must resist. Must appear as genuine as I actually am!) "You-what-I?" She looks incredibly confused and looks between it and me. Okay. Perhaps getting a gift from Hyperion's is not what a Pandoran would expect for Christmas. Or birthdays. Or ever.

"Look… I think we got off the wrong foot, like…" I roll my eyes. "Ten steps back. I don't know. Feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. You shot grazed me, sure, but you did it to get a psycho from jumping me. And I'll admit it, your aim was excellent. I was just freaked out by how… the day… went." I can't help shuddering. Its hard to not fall into depression or sadness thinking about it. It was only a few days ago. "Worst day of my life…"

"I can see that." She nods. "But I did it because that little guy would have made a confusing situation worse. I didn't do it wanting thanks, or appreciation."

"Then doesn't that make it better when it is given anyway? Besides, there were a lot of small things as well. Getting your sis to help Vaughn, getting August to not shoot me and be on my side enough to get Vaughn out of death's grip, at least trying to make the deal go smoothly in the end. Making me breakfast." I smile. Must. Resist. Urge. To cringe. The breakfast was soooo bland! Sure, it was food. But it was sooo bad! "Here."

She narrows her eyes at me suddenly. "The deal, yeah. The CON, you mean. I think your reasoning is you putting bullshit out of your ass."

Must. Resist. Urge. To facepalm.

"Your purpose may have been selfish, but I… damnit. Have you never heard of first-contact scenario?!"

"First what?"

"Okay." I put my hands together and tap my fingers in thought a moment. "A normal thing, historically, when a new species is encountered, is that there is gestures of goodwill and peace. Gifts. The best example is in ancient history when native Americans would trade gifts with the explorers from another continent. You don't even have to understand each other's language, because the exchange of gifts is more sentimental than about profit. Its about… just some kind of understanding. Making a good start."

"Start. Right. Where it was all based on lies. Unless you mean further back when Hyperion waged war on us."

"Oh, for the love of Jack!" I curse. This time, I do successfully facepalm. "You're making this so difficult! Just take the damn gift already! I'm showing I appreciate the little things you have done for us! I am showing I want a fresh start! Consider it a peace-offering!"

"And I think-"

"Just take it already!" Fiona has her input.

"Fine!" Sasha barks back at her sister, snatches the plasma knife from my hand, and storms off. It's a small camper, so her version of storming off is exactly three steps. That's about as far as she can go.

Jack… just kill me already. These people are going to drive me insane! I run my hands through my hair furiously. With my hair successfully floosed up all over the place, I set to work on what hardware I can find in the chest. Considering the condition of everything, I focus myself on inventorying them in a file on my ECHO-OS, and general maintenance. Some of the chips and boards I can fix. Some I can't. There are things that can be salvaged, and a lot that can't. I gesture to the trash bin, and Vaughn pulls it over to me.

Sasha naturally has to be argumentative about every little damn thing I do. I had just dumped something in the trash. "Um, what was wrong with that one?"

"It had cheese in the wiring." I explain simply, trying to keep my tone from being abstinent and offense since the talk we had about ten minutes ago went oh so well!

Why can't she just accept a damn peace-offering?

Well… like Grandpa Grumpy said, Hyperion did kind of destroy Pandora more than anyone else… and the natives were just simple farmers and colonists.

Perhaps she… maybe… has the right to be angry. Not at me! But in general… at my bosses.

"So? Peel it off." She says dismissively.

"Do you know what goes through wires?" I ask. I'm elbow deep in the chest digging around again.

"Uh, electricity?"

"Right. Wires are made of various metals, usually copper or gold, that lets electricity travel easily. Guess how hot a spark of electricity is?" She doesn't know, so I answer. "A single spark can be as hot as 3000 degrees Farenheight, if allowed to go on long enough. Touch it with even the slightest bit of cheese, and the cheese is instantly melted to it as hard as concrete, then its fatty oils are ignited, corrodes the wiring and makes it useless."

I prepare myself for whatever else she has to throw at me, but she doesn't say anything more after that. Guess she realizes now the logic behind my choice. I don't know whether I was aiming to win or to educate. Perhaps a bit of both. I made a choice based on an education in an area she doesn't have, and she thinks she knows better than me? Please. She is better at some things, but I am as well. I know my stuff. I'm a cyborg! I 've done maintenance on myself! I had to know every detail of the field of science in order to do it properly and not accidentally blow myself up.

Given an hour, I manage to inventory everything into what is useable and what is not, followed by what they actually are. Meanwhile I let my thoughts go through a background process of how in the world to track the money.

The briefcase has a tracking device in it. Simple enough. Many Hyperion briefcases do. The problem is that we didn't turn that feature on specifically to keep Vasquez off our tail. So I need to somehow broadcast a signal to it in order to turn that feature on, so we can find it, and the broadcast would have to be large enough to cover many many miles. And not cause a zerg rush to come in the process.

I know the bandwidth the briefcase would work on. There are only a few accepted as standards for wireless transmission anyway. It would either be 5.1ghz or 3ghz. Broadcasting it is easy enough, broadcasting it over an area large enough to account for several days of August traveling in a vehicle potentially faster than this camper, and potentially in the opposite direction from where we started?

If we traveled one mile in this timeframe , for example, then I would need a device to cover two miles. Three miles, if he is faster.

Why don't I just broadcast across a hundred miles at this point? It might be easier to forgo making a device to cover a few precise miles, and just hack an antenna with a lot of that hardware already set that is capable of covering an excessive distance. It would account for any variables we would have to deal with.

Unless they opened the briefcase already and we just don't know it.

I really hope they haven't…

"Enhance!"

What the…

"ENHANCE!"

I turn to find Sasha waving my peace offering around and hollaring at it. "Enhance already!"

Fiora steps in, and rather than stop the stupidity, she encourages it by saying "Maybe it only works for certain pitches of voice tone. Enhance."

Vaughn shares a glance with me. He silently conveys he is just as dumbfounded by the scene as I am. No wonder these people didn't kill me. They are mechanically ignorant.

"Enhance!" Brick roars.

Rhys stops and stares at Brick.

"Enhance." Mordecai says casually, then checks under his hat to see if it worked. It didn't.

"I don't get it… why isn't it working?" Lilith wonders.

Rhys could only stare. He was past the stage of face-palming. He could feel his brain cells dying just from watching it.

In the end, I managed to inventory the hardware that looked usable. I stand and walk up to Felix. He looks at me with his measured gaze. I wipe my hands of oil and filth on a rag I plucked out of the bin. "So, can you make what you need?"

"No." I reply. "I can make very little. The best I can do is repairs on what we have already."

"I see. What will you need then?"

I scratch my head and calculate it in my head. "Well, an wide-spectrum dish that can broadcast certain frequencies in every direction is the most important. Then a transceiver to scan for GPS signals. If we can't do the transceiver, then at least a booster to allow me to get on the ECHO-net with a stronger signal."

He frowned. "A wide-spectrum… Why?"

"Yeah… we don't know which direction August went, and the distance would be far. If I am going to send a signal to the briefcase to broadcast a return signature, it will have to be an initial signal send in every direction for a fair distance at very specific frequencies." He stares at me blankly. I nod. "And you have no idea what I just said, do you?"

"I'll have to take your word on it, won't I?" He grumbles. "Those dishes, would you be thinking Hyperion grade?"

"I am used to Hyperion hardware, so it is what I have in mind. But I should be able to work with Dahl or Atlas standards if I can get my hands on decent ones."

"No, Hyperion will be best to make this work. I have a place in mind." He turns the chair back around so he is facing forwards and he changes direction slightly.

I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms. "I doubt we will be able to get to Helios with this thing, or getting a delivery drop."

"We won't have to." He says mysteriously. "We will arrive there tonight. Get yourself tucked in, Hyperion." He waves me off dismissively and I get the distinct impression I am being treated like a slave.

The impression sends a furious boiling sensation into my veins. I clench my fists, but otherwise do nothing. I am truly a slave. I can't do anything.

"Enhance!" The girls continue trying.

 **-Two Days Later-**

Another meal, another bland sandwich. I feel the overpowering urge to vomit taking a place next-door to my liver and my growing sense of helpleness. With nothing to do, I think. I'm at the beck-and-call of Felix, and am not allowed to do anything else than what he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants it. All I can do is lay on the floor (I no longer warrant a bed) and stare at the ceiling. I can feel every rock we ride over in my back.

I do the best I can. I put my hands behind my head, and fell into deep silent thought. Except that would be hard to do right now. My best thoughts involve plotting, planning, figuring something out, and I need a goal in order to do that. Right now, the only goal we have is get the money, which, I can't plot or plan towards without proper information. I'm not allowed to get information. The few attempts at conversation are quickly shut down.

I have trouble putting my finger on these people. Sasha, clearly a hot-head. She is the youngest in the group, yet being an adult with such a strong and independent personality in a group that seems to baby her makes her aggressive. But then it's how she treats me that I don't get. One moment she is helpful in a backhanded way, then she is genuinely helpful, then she is holding a grudge, then she has me at gunpoint, then she is back to being helpful in a backhanded way. She keeps going in a circle!

Fiona is much more calm and patient, wanting to think things out before stepping in. Practically the complete opposite of her sister. But Fiona too is confusing. She helps us in arguments that are death-threatening, yet is not on our side. Beyond that, I got nothing. Part of being silent, calm, patient, and only having input when necessary, is that it makes her hard to peg down. She hasn't expressed herself enough in enough ways for me to get any kind of feel for, beyond the obvious fact that she is a con-artist little b****. Even then, that only proves that what little she does show can't be trusted. Sasha at least seems more honest about her feelings and how they are expressed, even as confusing as they are.

Felix is a combination of the two. A con-artist by his past, so far as I have heard, yet is open with us about who we all are and where we all stand. Namely they hate us. He is hot-headed enough to take sudden action, yet patient and calm enough to control himself. If anything, this combination makes him more dangerous than either of the girls. Planners tend to not take action, while people who take action tend not to plan. Sasha and Fiona both have a potential weakness in that. Felix lacks that. Naturally its due to his experience. He is old enough to be a grandfather.

I sigh. I'm hopeless to deal with these three in any way. I'm not exactly the manipulator type either. The only understanding I have of psychology is what I have picked up in my experience of well… being a company man.

I blame my genes. Father had no social understanding whatsoever and mother was too kind-hearted to be anything short of completely honest and naive!

 _"I don't want to die… Please…"_

I feel my pulse spike up as terror pierces my thoughts. By reflex I shake the thoughts away. I had allowed myself to think too far, too deep, into that. I shouldn't let my thoughts drift like that.

"You okay?" Vaughn wonders.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I sit up and stretch my neck. I hear a distinctive popping sensation.

"You sure? Your eyes suddenly widened in terror, and you're in a cold sweat."

"I'm fine, Vaughn… Just… not a good memory." I whisper. He nods in understanding.

One thing that worries me is time. Every hour that passes is another hour before August gets the briefcase to his mother. Due to the fact that Pandora is so big and this isn't a cheap 2-hour movie, it does take time for August to reunite with his mom, give her a Christmas present, and ho-ho-ho.

But how long?

I literally feel like I am sitting on a lottery wheel. Every hour I spin the wheel, and it has a random chance to destroy my life, a Pandoran gang lord, and 10-million dollars in cash. A sadistic part of me feels like it isn't completely bad. I am taking a Pandoran with me. But then… I would rather avoid the first part entirely.

"We're there." Felix announces. I look out the window to see we parked next to a mountain.


	10. Chapter 9 - Mount Trash Part 2

**-Rhys-**

 **-Past-**

"We're there." Felix announces. I look out the window to see we parked next to a mountain.

Felix parks the caravan, and we climb out of the car for some fresh air and to feel solid ground under our feet again. We had been driving nonstop. I pop a kink in my back as I stretch. Everyone else seems grateful for the stop as well.

"You should be able to get everything you need here, Hyperion." Felix says. "I am taking you and four-eyes with me and we're going to have a look around, see what we can find. Sasha, Fiona, stay with the caravan. Make sure you are both armed."

I nod confirmation, but Fiona protests. "Uh, yeah. No. I'm not touching a gun."

"Fiona. We have talked about this."

"Yeah, and you know I would rather talk my way through things than shoot my way through. I won't have people's blood on my hands." She stands her ground.

Lilith raises an eyebrow. "In all my life, I have never heard a Pandoran utter such words."

"BLASPHEMAY!" Brick yells. He leans back as far as he can and has his fingers out in a cross-symbol as if to ward off evil demons. "PUNCH THE INFIDEL!"

"We can afford the luxury of niavity here." Felix reprimands her. "This place is held by the Hand of Jack nuts."

For some reason that means something to them and their eyes widen slightly. For me, though, I try to restrain my laughter but it erupts from my mouth anyway. "Hand of Jack? What kind of cheesy name is that?"

"They are Pandorans that worship Jack." Felix says with a shrug.

"You should fit riiiight in." Sasha smiles sarcastically. Even her smile is sarcastic!

I reply, "Uh-yeah. No. Don't think I will. Can we just pass on some insane natives and go through the route that will take us to… I don't know… more civilized territory?"

"This is Mount Trash, and its Pandora. By your definition there is no civlized area." Felix replies.

He has a point. "Why Mount Trash?" I ask.

"You'll see. Let's get going." Felix motions for the girls to get back into the car, and he takes a rifle himself in his arms while nudging Vaughn and I forward toward the mountain. Felix keeps his eyes peeled and his gun ready at all times as we march. It's a silent trip filled with us struggling to work our way up to the mountain through… believe it or not… trash. Why is there so much trash on this side of the mountain? It is like trying to climb over a garbage hill.

Can't say I'm really surprised there is so much trash here. Pandora is a filthy, disease-infested planet. Helios is very clean and that is what I'm used to. The moment there is the slightest filth, there is an alert sent out from a scanner to the janitors and it is cleaned within minutes.

This place… its like they just dump it and leave it to rot.

One pile of trash goes over my head and I can't help but laugh. "Hey! Vaughn! Take a picture of me!" I lean up against it, but wait, there is an even bigger pile of trash over there! "Oh, no! Wait! How about this pile of trash! Haha! I have never seen so much junk in one place. What is all this?!"

Felix grows aggravated and nudges me forward with the butt-end of his rifle. His eye twitches slightly and he has a faint snarl. I defend myself, still feeling jovial from the laugh I had, "Hey, dude. You have to admit, this is bad. I have never seen so much trash in my life! We shouldn't have the slightest problem finding what we need here!"

Felix shoves me forward even harder than before. "Shut up and get moving. We want to reach the base of the mountain before nightfall without getting caught."

"Alright, alright." I sigh.

"So… uh… what kind of Jack-worshippers are these?" Vaughn asks after a few minute's walk. "Is it true we might be able to fit in?"

"Doubt it." I reply. "I don't recall there being a contract for any Hyperion bases in this area. No cities, no forts, no factories, no mines. Nothing. If anything, there shouldn't be a Hyperion territory for miles." I scoff. "Not hard to see why. This place has no value except for scavengers."

"The Hyperion is right. They are not Hyperion." Felix smiles evilly. "And yes, you would fit right in. Everyone does. You see, they are lead by one of the last remaining claptrap units in existance." Hearing that makes my eyes widen in shock. There are still claptrap units? Those things were shut down! "And they are jovial, happy-go lucky. They'll feed you, bathe you, house you, even give you to their woman for the night."

"So evil." I say sarcastically. "Next they'll be having us confess to ours sins by fluffing up our pillows, sitting us in the comfy chair until lunch time, and giving us a pot of tea."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Vaughn says, unsure.

Felix doesn't commit to the conversation further. "Yeah well… Keep your eyes peeled. If anything moves, let me know."

We continue the long march towards the base of the mountain and as we do so, we pass by piles of trash in increasingly large size. I feel eyes are on us, but I can't see them, and Felix is unfazed. Eventually the trash itself becomes walls around us, then small clifs and high hills until… I can't believe it. I stop and stare up at what I am seeing. Vaughn openly gapes.

Mount Trash is a good name. It is literally a mountain of trash. Thousands of feet high, hundreds of feet wide, and surrounded in cliffs and a steep incline at the base. I'm already hundreds of feet high and I can barely see the top of the mountain, and its more than just one mountain. It's a mountain range. This is the largest mountain, but all around it is a series of other mountains where the entirety of them is made up of trash, the valleys are a plains of junk, and right now I am standing on a used pizza box. The smell is revolting to a degree I have never encountered in my life and with each gust of wind there is a bit of dirt, grime, grease, and loose clumps of trash blown off the side and into my face. Even as I watch there is a small avalanche of trash.

"Welcome to Mount Trash." Felix says simply. "Now get digging."

"With what?" I ask.

Felix considers my question, takes five steps to his right, and picks up two items out of the mountain. He throws a shovel with blood stains to Vaughn, who drops it like a hot potato at the sight of blood, and another item to me. I complain, "I can't use this! It's a pooper-scooper!"

"Better than using your hands, ain't it?"

"Well… yeah, but-"

"Then get digging." Felix flicks his gun at me to emphasis his point.

"You know you really don't need to threaten me every few minutes… Or hit me. Or any of that."

"And yet you STILL aren't digging." He replies in disbelief.

Openly glaring at the man who is now at the top of my shit-list for today, I pick up the pooper-scooper, present it like a soldier, and begin digging. "Much better. Keep at it." He orders. Vaughn does the same, with a wince at having to touch stained blood. Who knows how many years this crap has had germs growing on it.

I can't say how long Vaughn and I are at it. It gets hot and I feel sweat pouring down my back. Vaughn, amazingly, is doing much better. He doesn't seem remotely exhausted and he is pulling off a higher pace than me. Felix does a little digging here and there, scavenging around, but mostly he keeps an eye on our surroundings like a hawk. I feel my temper go both down and up. On one hand, he doesn't keep up with the whip-mentality, letting us go without harsh words or threats, and on the other hand it is hot! The smell only gets worse as it gets hotter! The shit (literally) that I am both holding in my hands and digging through has this horrible tendency to increase in nostril intensity as the heat grows and as the sun goes by!

"You know you will fare better if you didn't wear so many layers." Felix says to us.

Vaughn is too hot to be shy about it and takes off his jacket and shirt until he remains in his sweat-soaked undershirt. I take off my jacket, but I refuse to go any further. "I'm not stripping." I say immediately. That is not happening.

"You will face heat exhaustion if you keep it up." Felix replies. "Take off the shirt."

Stupid as it may be, I ignore him. "Shoot me if you want, I'm not stripping."

Vaughn looks at me worriedly and Felix is just dumbfounded. "Are you stupid?"

"Rhys… not like it matters. They already saw everything." Vaughn argues. I wince at the thought and my composure falls into despair. He's right… they did.

"Saw what?" Felix asks.

We turn to him. "You know. When you took care of Rhys's wounds…"

"Rhys had no wounds so there was nothing to take care of." Felix raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

I sputter, "B-but Sasha said!"

"She was screwing with you, Hyperion." Of course she was… Felix sighs and he lowers his gun. "Hyperion, here is how this works. Either you take off layers, or you will have heat exhaustion. If you do that, I will have little choice but to leave you. I can't take the journey back to the caravan quickly with you dragging me down because you were stupid enough to get sick."

I glare at him a long time. He makes sense. The problem is that, despite how much of a logical person I consider myself, but fears and trepidation are strong as well and wage war with the sense his statement makes.

"Rhys..." Vaughn says in concern. He is the only one who knows my secret… and it looks like I have no choice but to let Felix know as well. Slowly, I take off my shirt. What Felix see's makes his eyes widen in amazement. He is stunned silent.

Starting from my collar down the middle of my chest, stomach, and into my pants, is a scar-line. On one side is flesh. On the other is robotic metal. Even after all these years the scar is still ugly.

"I know you were a cyborg…" He whispers. "But this much…" He looks me in the eyes as if seeing me anew. "How did you live through the surgery?"

"I don't know myself." I mutter in humilation.

This is my darkest secret. Its ugly. The only people who have ever seen it are either revolted, sickened, or think differently of me. They think me different or weird or not-human. I've lost jobs because they want a human and not a robot. I've had paychecks kept back because robots don't get paid. Am I human? Am I a robot? This is a question I have asked myself years ago. Vaughn threw up when he saw it the first time and he still can barely stand the sight of it, but for his part it is because he shares my pain.

We continue working and despite the humiliation, the work is easier. Felix is amazingly silent. What he saw shook him. Even after all these years, guess some things can still surprise him.

Something about what I am seeing has me on edge. I can't put my finger on it, but its… odd. I just feel like something is very off. However, my growing trepidation disappears as we come across some parts of what I need. The sight of the hardware lights up my day. I bring what I find to Felix. He raises an eyebrow at it, still avoiding the sight of my scar, and I return to my work. I doubt he understands what it is I've found.

 **-Vaughn-**

Unbeknownst to Rhys, Vaughn figured out what Rhys' problem was on his own. He climbed his way up to where Felix sat. A part of him was scared. The man was simply scary. Vaughn saw him as a man hardened by death, pain, and contained hatred for people like him, but there were rare moments when Vaughn didn't care. He didn't consider himself a brave person at all. He was scared by everything. But Vaughn did have a sense of justice that was rare among Hyperions, and right now, he had a question he needed answered or he felt he wouldn't be able to rest.

Vaughn walked up to Felix and looked him square in the eye. Felix raised an eyebrow at the sight of him, and were Rhys to look up, he might be proud of how Vaughn wasn't shaking or looking scared in the least of the man. Felix, on his part, was interested in the complete personality change in the usually skittish man.

"This is Hyperion trash isn't it?" Vaughn asked. "It… all of it… it comes from Helios, doesn't it? We dump it here." Vaughn looked out over the mountains of trash with new understanding. "Helios has always been a clean place… I'm good with numbers. I'm good with tracking things. One of the few things I've always been curious about is where the trash went. I never looked because it was insignificant. But… we did this… and continue to do this… don't we?"

Felix was silent a long moment. "What told you this?"

"Two things… First, almost everything here is Hyperion in nature. Second, there was a drop from Helios a few minutes ago in that direction." Vaughn pointed.

Felix was still silent. Vaughn nodded in understanding. "You didn't leave the girls back because of safety, did you? There was a different reason."

Felix scoffed. "You have your moments when you are more bright than your friend, Hyperion."

Vaughn turned skittish. He wasn't use to praise of any kind, even backhanded ones. "No, no. Not at all. Rhys is much smarter."

Felix argued, "Don't sell yourself short. You're right… I didn't." Felix looked in the distance in silent thought a long moment. "We're Pandoran… Four-Eyes. I have seen so much, I can't forget. I hate you people… I hate you so much. If you had the slightest inkling of an idea of the depth of my hatred…!" He left it unspoken.

Vaughn stepped back fearfully at the amount of anger and hate in the man's face, then Felix composed himself. "But Sasha, Fiona… They have grown in a world that tells them to hate as well. If I could spare them a bit of what I have seen… I would. I would have them fear nothing and hate nobody. It's too late for me to do that, but…" He shrugged. "If they knew of this mountain more than they already do, it would just be another reason for them to hate. Even justified as it might be towards you people." He added offhandedly.

A moment passed between them, and Vaughn found himself saying, "I think you did well."

Felix looked at him in surprise, and Vaughn was equally surprised the words came out of his own mouth. "S-sorry. I-"

"Get back to it." Felix ordered him.

"R-right!" Vaughn scurried down the mountain, but stopped and asked, "Do you think that new drop from Helios will have what we need?"

"Yeah, but the nut-cases will be all over the new trash like fleas. We should hurry back soon. We have already pushed it with being out here as long as we have been."

 **-Rhys-**

Felix announces we are done for the day, and we should return to the caravan. We got a good load of junk I can use to build what we need. Still missing the antenna itself, but at least I have stuff I can put into the antenna and possibly a tracker to guide us to the briefcase. We walk back towards the caravan, and along our journey, my holo-eye flickers and locks on to an object half-buried in rubble to our right.

An antenna! I glance to the others as they continue on. The caravan is in sight. I can grab the antenna and catch up before they ever notice I'm gone. That'll show them. This trip will prove to be quite fruitful if I can knock out the first part on the first day!

-Sasha-

Sasha didn't know what to feel or think. There was simply too much.

Left to do nothing more than sit and muse and wait and clean the caravan for the twentieth time, she did a lot of thinking. She was a good thinker, if one was to ask her, but she knew she was thinking too much. Yet with the inability to do anything else, there was little else she could do.

Memories of her time with August rose up and made her feel disgusted. Disgusted at him for having murdered people, a line her family refused to cross (outside of self-defense); and disgusted with herself for too many reasons to count. She had slept with him, she had pulled him in to care and listen to her more than his own family, and in the end of it all… she might have… actually… maybe… fallen for him a tiny bit.

It was all a con. She reminded herself of that for the millionth time, and while she had believed herself to be detached at one time… the mantra offered little solace now.

He was scum. He was the exact example of what made Pandora a pain in the ass when they met. But then, perhaps the thing that made her so disgusted with herself was the fact that he was changing in the end. She held no illusions. He was still scum, but he was taking steps away from the man handcrafted by his mother to become the kind of man he thought Sasha would be proud of, because of Sasha.

What now? How would he react? Would he become full of pain and loathing from the betrayel, to become the exact monster Vallery wanted as heir to lead their gang? Would he go after Sasha wanting to have an answer to the simple question: Why?

Sasha yelled in aggravation and self-inflicted guilt. Having no other outlet, she took the object closest to her and threw it. Fiona jumped at the sudden noise, but wisely gave her space. Fiona knew her better than Sasha realized.

Seeking another object to vent her frustration on, she grasped a metal cylinder. The touch made her stop and her thoughts violently shifted from one confusing matter to another.

She hated Hyperions. They were at war before and after Jack, but it was hard to grasp the idea of Hyperion without the face and taunting of Jack. You couldn't picture Hyperion without him. Was it because he was the ideal of Hyperion incarnate or because he crafted Hyperion in his image? Sasha decided it was both.

Why then did she have trouble hating the Hyperions they were around? It had only been a few days and despite her reminding herself of what they were, she lacked the sense of disgust towards the two of them she held toward the others of their kind. There was no contempt, no open hatred, no hostility outside of what she forced herself to do and be, because it was natural. They lacked the traits she hated most of Hyperion. If anything, they were only guilty of having been born on the other side of the war.

Such an idea confused her and she hated it. It was a confusing thought that made her wonder where she stood on anything anymore. The world was much simpler a few days ago. She was in a con. Hyperion was evil. Pandoran were scum. Hate Hyperion. Watch for both. Get money. Simple.

Now she had seen moments of friendship, caring, even perhaps tenderness and concern from the very demons that plagued her. She had been given a peace-offering. Admittedly, she could have taken it better, but it shocked her and she just wished things were simple again.

Now she couldn't think of Hyperion without having the conflicting images of Jack's voice taunting them, of death all around her, against the protectiveness and concern and friendship the Hyperions held for each other.

She sighed. The sooner they got rid of the Hyperions and moved on, the better. Then she could return to seeing the world in black and white again without having to question everything she knew up to this point.

Fiona suddenly stood just before a yell came from Felix, "Sasha! Fiona! We're back."

Sasha didn't hesitate to run out and give him a hug. Anything to get her mind out of the gutter. The old man smiled and laughed. "Miss me?"

"No, bored! There's been NOTHING to do!" Sasha replied with a groan.

"She's cleaned at least a dozen times." Fiona smirked and hugged Felix as well. She patted the four-eyed Hyperion on the shoulder in a neutral greeting. He visibly lightened up as though he wasn't expecting any at all. Sasha looked between them expecting some goodies they could tinker with. She considered herself decent with tools, despite the high-and-mighty all-knowing cyborg's assertion.

Felix placed some things on the ground gently. "Okay, Hyperions. Let's have a look."

Vaughn did as he saw Felix do and place what he carried in the pile before patting his hands off.

Sasha waited for Rhys to drop his off… but… where was Rhys? Where was the cyborg? He hadn't walked around the corner with them. Suddenly realizing something was off, Felix spun around counting heads. Vaughn counted much faster and paled. Felix snarled.

"Uh… where's the cyborg?" Fiona wondered.

 **-Rhys-**

I groan and blink in the darkness. Was it day? Was it night? What happened?

The last thing I remembered was tugging on something vitally important and… I jolt up and hit my head on iron bars. I rub my bruised skull and look around.

I was captured. Hands had grabbed me from behind far more silently than I would have expected from anything on Pandora. Pandora is deadly, but it is deadly in a loud sense. What doesn't shoot, yell, run around like a lunatic, or explode is NOT Pandoran in nature.

The cell I am in is designed for a dog. There's a blanket under me. The door to the dog-cage is wide open. So… am I a prisoner or not? Odd that the cage would be wide open.

Slowly I climb out on all fours. My ECHO-eye flares to life and I see in the darkness. I'm inside a cavern. That's the first thing I realize. Second, it is rather homey. There is no bed but there are other things you would associate with a home: furnace, old couch, some furnishings and rugs, a kitchen area, a table covered in tools and hardware.

"Oh, good! You're awake!" A cheerful robotic voice says from the side.

I flinch and jump away at the sound. There is a droid standing there. A claptrap unit.

"A claptrap? I thought they were all destroyed." Lilith says in wonder. Mordecai whistles. Brick is off getting more popcorn.

"Uh, hi." I say.

"Hello! How was your sleep! I hope it was to your liking! You know, it is so hard to get the lice out after you burn the dog… And wouldn't you know it. Duct-tape doesn't fix EVERYTING! Doesn't fix your dog, doesn't get your in-laws to shut up (actually makes them angrier!), and doesn't stop keep you from getting thirsty! I am so parched! Would you like a drink?" The droid finishes rambling long enough to offer a glass of oil. I eye the black liquid.

This droid is a few circuits short of a processor. I'm not sure if that is a sign that Pandora's insanity effects even droids, or if it's a bad thing that I'm not really surprised anymore. I've had a crash course in Pandora people. Best not to incur its wrath. I smile and take the glass from its hands.

"I… uh. I don't take it you get visitors… often." I try an attempt at conversation.

"Nah, I get people all the time! But your way of greeting is so much nicer! Most of the time it is with 'AAAAAAAAHH!' or 'OH MY GAWD DON'T SHOOT ME!', 'Welcome to Wall'mart!', and then there's my favorite 'SPIT ON ME!'. It is certainly refreshing to meet a cyborg with manners." The droid shoves its own glass of oil in its face as if it has a mouth, only it doesn't. So the liquid pours down its front onto the floor. It makes smacking noises as if it has lips. "Speaking of manners, I am so sorry, I have humiliated myself!"

"Well, if you are referring to the…" I try not to stare at the streak of black liquid pouring down the claptrap's front.

"My identification is STFU-69! That's short for-"

"I know what its short for." I say quickly. "I think… it is a very fitting name."

"REALLY!?" It yells excitedly. "So nice to meet a brother that understands the conventional importance of proper identification! After all, words are nothing more than standard combinations of letters to identify an object! It is only fitting the proper word be used to most accurately describe said object!"

"I'm Rhys." I offer in return for the name, completely ignoring the rambling.

"Reese!" It repeats.

"Rhys." I reply.

"That's what I said!"

"…" I don't know what to do with it.

"Anyway, Reese!" The droid moves over next to me, climbs up onto a bench besides where I stand, and sits next to me. "Have you considered our lord and savior?"

"… What?" Is about as far as my ability to keep up can go. How did we go from 'hi, how as your sleep' to ''ducttape' to 'want a drink' to 'manners' to 'names' to 'would you like to talk about God'? This is an English teacher's nightmare. There is no flow whatsoever.

"It's okay, not everyone does. But I am fully qualified to have this conversation! I'm a priest!"

"Right." I answer, failing to keep the disbelief out of my voice. "Priest of who? Cthulu?"

"No, silly! Jack!"

Of course, why am I not surprised. I hail him as a hero, but I wouldn't go quite as far as God. I'm not THAT insane. I only have his collectibles, some of his spit in a jar, and motivational posters. I don't have his bible, I tried, but someone else outbid me by two cents! (The bible was autographed and everything!) so no, I'm not that nuts.

"Ah, Jack." I nod. "I know Jack. Nice guy. Yeah…"

The droid stares at me a long, loooong time. I can see its 'eye' widen and focus on me in wonder. "You are the second coming of Jack…"

"Wha-"

Before I have time to wonder what the actual hell has gotten into my insane friend, it is grabbing me by the hand and dragging me out of the hut into the bright outdoors. Instantly I see we are in the middle of a bustling village of trash, and there is a very thick population of psychos.

The psychos part like water before us as this claptrap seems to have their respect. All the time I hear things like "WELCOME TO WAL'MART!" and "SPIT ON ME!" and "AAAAAHHHH!" and "OH MY GAWD DON'T KILL ME!"

STFU-69 drags me through the village. I try to resist, but its grip is iron tight around my wrist. I don't think it even notices I am trying to pull back against its grip. It just carries on and hums happily until we reach a podium… with a throne on it.

"Wha? A throne?" I murmur. I continue trying to resist, but STFU-69 is having none of that. He shoves me into the throne's seat, places a six-inch hell stripper's shoe in my left hand, a hammer in my right hand, and a baseball cap on my head. He raises my right hand into the air. Everyone in the crowd cheers.

"EVERYONE! EVERYONE! LOOK UNTO ME! HE POSSESSES THE HAMMER OF TRUTH! AND THE SHOE OF REALITY!" STFU-69 yells.

"It's more beautiful than I ever imagined!" One random Psycho yells.

"I HAVE SEEN THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! AND YOU WILL WORSHIP HIM AS THOUGH HE WERE A GOD!"

And… that is the story of how I became a god.

I wanted to go home.


	11. Chapter 10 - Mount Trash Part 3

**-Sasha-**

"Uh… where's the cyborg?" Fiona wondered.

Felix stormed past her into the caravan, and Sasha and Fiona shared worried glances. Something had happened. Sasha had a bad feeling about it, and it seemed Fiona felt the same way. They had gone with three and returned with two. Judging from how the boys didn't notice one of their group was missing, it had to have been recent. Very recent, if the relationship between the cyborg and the nerd meant anything.

Fiona glanced at the nerd Hyperion, and we shared another glance. Time to split up to cover more ground. "I got Vaughn." She said.

"I'll get Felix." Sasha returned.

A bit impromptu, but they do that. They had a sixth sense thing. Sasha didn't meet many other families with siblings (or even intact families for that matter) but she had the impression it is because they were so close that they can build tactics and exchange entire conversations at a glance.

Sasha entered the caravan to find Felix dumping a box of ammo on the table. It was a box of ammo left for emergency only, hidden in a secret department. The sight of the shotgun was worrying enough, but the amount of ammo he seemed to believe he needed was worse. Just how bad was this? Sasha knew the mountain of trash was populated, but then so was the rest of Pandora. What made this go the extra effort of opening that?

"Hey, uh… Felix." Sasha said.

"Hey, Sasha." He returned. His attention was focused on his work. He pulled out of a strap of leather he hadn't worn as long as Sasha knew him. It was something he wore in the old days before he adopted them, back when he had to fight and kill on a regular basis. It had lots of holes and small straps to hold shotgun rounds. He started filling the slots with fresh rounds. The old rounds had decayed to the point of being unreliable and even dangerous to use.

Sasha gulped and set herself at the task of equipping herself as well. If the situation was this bad, she would need to be ready as well. She laid her rifle and some clips on the table opposite him, and he stopped only long enough to give her a meaningful look. She ignored it, unsure what he had going through his mind. Clearly they would be entering dangerous territory.

Sasha counted her clips, "How many you think we will need to get him out?"

Felix halted in mid-movement so briskly that ammo clattered, rolled, and fell onto the floor. He completely froze for a brief moment, but then he looked up in confusion and outrage. "Get him? What do you mean get him?!"

Sasha glanced around all they had been doing and asked, "Aren't we getting ourselves ready to go rescue him?"

Sasha knew Felix as a lot of things, but the side that suddenly showed was not something she had seen in… ever. He laughed. He laughed at the thought of saving someone. It was so cynical and full of disbelief that Sasha didn't know how to take it. She felt a pain in her chest, and she wasn't sure why. She would also fail to deny it if she didn't admit to being scared of this side of him all of a sudden. It was like something deep inside was momentarily released.

"Rescue him?" He laughed. He kept laughing, then he abruptly stopped. "You serious? No. No, no, no. We are getting ourselves out. That idiot got himself into it, he can get himself out, or he can die, either way we have to hightail it before Vallory comes after us."

"What?" Sasha gasped. "But-"

"But what?" Felix demanded. "He's Hyperion. I told him not to leave the path. He screwed up."

Sasha found she couldn't argue. She didn't know what had happened and couldn't argue against the events, but it felt wrong to just leave him to die. He was Hyperion… but…

But what?

'This is your problem, Sasha… you have good gut instincts, but you don't know what that gut says…' She chastised herself.

"I just don't like it." She argued truthfully. "My gut-"

"Your gut?" He raised an eyebrow. "You mean that con-artist gig we pull on people? Don't try that crap on me, Sasha. I'm not someone you're conning."

She grit her teeth angrily. Of course… when did anyone ever believe in her instincts unless they were on the opposite sides of their plans? It's not like he was being an ass, but the truth was simply there. Her gut instinct was part of the act they always used. She was the youngest of the team, so she was the less wise one. She was the child. The feeling of being treated like one only made her angrier.

"Then how about we simply go with the fact that we can't find the briefcase, and keep it from Vallory, without him!" She yelled.

"Yeah, well! Screw Vallory!"

"Yeah, screw her, but if we damn him then we also damn ourselves! I'm not like you! I'm not so pissed off at the world I would happily take it with me! I want to live!"

He stopped his raging and stared. Sasha felt she hit a nerve with him, judging from his widened eye; however, too incensed to really care, and now having successfully made her blood-boil and her adrenaline start pumping, she grabbed her gun and stomped out of the caravan leaving a stunned father-figure in her wake.

A part of her was guilty at the idea of shoving that in his face, but she shoved it down. She didn't know where it came from, but it felt like it was the core of some truth with him. He was so different from her and Fiona. He was an old Pandoran of an old age where all he knew was blood and death. He came from a time when you didn't give a damn about living so long as you took everyone with you. He lived in a time of hate… and to be fair, they still did. Sasha knew he protected them from it, and she would thank him for that later, but for now… they had a dumbass to save.

As always, Fiona had a calming influence on people. Vaughn still looked worried for his friend, but also suitably prepared to go out and look for him unarmed. (Stupid as that may be.) Fiona herself packed a small pistol.

Sasha eyed it on her hip with a smirk, "Going in armed for once? Only took twenty years to rub off on you."

Fiona smiled nervously. "Yeah… Talking is my thing, but I don't think talking with do much with these people. It's just incase you miss one. Try to let me keep my record intact, eh sis?"

Sasha unconsciously patted her SMG. "I'll do my best."

They didn't even ask what she wanted. They instinctually had the same idea: To save the dumbass. It made her feel good. They ventured out into the mountain. Sasha glanced back at the caravan as they turned the bin, hoping Felix would follow, but all she saw was him watching them leave. He looked like he was at war with himself.

Well it was too bad. Pick a side. Sasha still hated Hyperion, but she could live with saving one if it meant saving her family. (Plus one nerd that wasn't half-bad.)

Sasha said, "Okay, Vaughn. Where did you last see… uh…"

"Rhys." Vaughn gave.

"Right." Sasha nodded.

Fiona snorted in amusement. "I could have told you that."

"Yeah, impeccable memory my ass."

"Only if you insist on me kissing it."

"Why don't you have your pet Hyperion do it for you?"

"I'd rather not be dragged into this…" Vaughn inserted. "It was right about here." He motioned a moment later. "We went around this bend, and I saw him out of the corner of my eye."

They looked backwards and forwards. "We can see the edges of the caravan from here." Fiona said. "He was very close."

Sasha kept an eye on their surroundings. If he was grabbed this close, then the kidnapper was near.

It was at this point that Sasha noticed Vaughn was looking at them expectantly. "What?"

"You found his scent?"

Fiona tried to a hide a smile behind her hand politely, but Sasha just stared. "What?"

Vaughn suddenly got nervous again. "Um… don't you people know how to track other people? And stuff like that?"

"We aren't dogs!" Sasha argued. Fiona couldn't contain it anymore and laughed.

"S-so that's not a skill you Pandoran's pick up along with… you know… shooting and cutting and knifing and-"

"No!" Sasha insisted incrediously. She turned on her sister. "Stop laughing!" Back to Vaughn. "Some bounty-hunters know how from their trade, but the rest of us are not dogs! I wouldn't know the first thing about tracking if it bit me in the ass!"

"I could always have Vaughn do it!" Fiona blurted out in a fit of laughter.

Vaughn went from red, to a deep red as he realized how deeply he had shoved both of his feet in his mouth, and Sasha glared at her sister. "You aren't helping."

Fiona finished chuckling. "It's not that bad, and technically tracking is a skill to be learned as much as anything else based on intuition."

"What you gonna smell my breathe and tell me what I had for breakfast now?"

"Nah. Although, knowing us, it's something with cheese."

"I wonder what told you that." Sasha replied sarcastically. "Not like we've had, Oh I don't know, ANYTHING ELSE!"

While the conversation went on for a bit longer, it was mostly Fiona giggling at the other's expense, and before long even Vaughn was smiling in amusement, while Sasha was inwardly amused at the whole thing and outwardly quite peeved. Before long they chose to treck back along the path the three men had taken before up the mountain and they walked in silence.

To Sasha's amazement, Vaughn was the only one not having a difficult time climbing at the tail end of their journey. Sasha wouldn't say she was out of shape, but she and Fiona were sweating and panting and had a tough time grasping at a foundation with their hands with which to climb, while Vaughn just pressed onward.

He stopped and helped them up as best he could with a smile. Part of Sasha wanted to climb up and wipe that smile off his face (she was not weak!) and the other part was too busy trying to keep up to waste energy in assaulting his face. But then… he didn't seem like the type to look down on people. Ironic for a Hyperion. So she could forgive him this time for being the superior one.

After what felt like hours, and hours, and hours (really it was probably thirty-minutes) they stopped at a clearing to rest. It was near time to eat, and Sasha had been too hot-blooded to consider food when they left. She was not hungry enough to eat trash either…

For that matter eating ontop of a literal mountain of trash didn't seem that appealing. The others must have been of like-mind, because they didn't complain of hunger at all. They just rested their legs. Sasha leaned back on a dirty cushion with a spring coming out of the side and groaned in the heat. The heat of Pandora was stifling here, and it didn't help that the nature of trash lacked the same nature as good ground. It gave off a loooot more heat.

"Hey, uh… guys." Vaughn said with clear hesitation. "Thanks."

"For what?" Fiona asked.

"For coming. I realize we are technically supposed to be enemies, and yeah, Rhys screwed up, and-"

"We get it." She responded. "Its fine, Vaughn. We need him, all of us. Besides, not like you would have gone after him on your own. That would have just been stupid."

He was amazingly silent.

Fiona sat up. "You would have wouldn't you?"

He nodded and looked down at his lap. He rubbed his hands together. Fiona looked concerned and shared a glance with Sasha. Sasha didn't share her concern. She just thought it was stupid. No one goes anywhere alone in Pandora and expects to live out the door.

Fiona continued to look at Vaughn, as if processing something. Trying to understand. "Why? I realize you are both Hyperion, but why be willing to do something as stupid as throw your life away for one guy?"

It could be said they were just as stupid, but being in numbers made it less stupid.

Vaughn shrugged. "Because that's what friends do."

Sasha stared at him in amazement a moment. He wasn't just an enigma among Hyperion, he wasn't a rarity… he was the exact opposite of everything she ever considered Hyperion to be and mean. He was, in a way, full of such naive innocence that it was a wonder Pandora and Hyperion both had not taken that precious trait away.

She also pitied him, because it was that exact thing that would kill him one day.

They rested in silence. For Sasha, she was confused. For Vaughn, he was content to just thank them.

After a short rest, they continued on. They arrived at the destination and searched a short distance from there. They did not want to go too far from where they recognized.

Sasha heard something, like a stomp. She whipped out her SMG so fast she nearly got it caught in her jacket. Fiona reacted by whipping out her pistol. Vaughn reacted by squealing and staring down the barrel of said pistol, as she happened to be aiming between his eyes without paying attention.

"Ah, watch it!" He dropped down beneath her aim.

Fiona grimaced, "Sorry, wasn't look at you! Stay down!"

"Shh!" Sasha hushed them. She listened closely. It was definitely a stomp. A lot of stomping. She couldn't make out where it was coming from. She kept her eyes down the sight of her gun and pressed herself against a barricade, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

Fiona hid with her back to a busted up fridge and Vaughn scrambled inside the fridge, and closed the door on himself. Fiona looked around. "Where's that coming from?"

"Don't know. Hush a minute!" Sasha hissed.

They kept themselves poised and silent with anticipated breathe. The stomping continued… but it never seemed to come closer. It was also erratic… like a beat.

"Drums?" Fiona wondered outloud.

"Possibly…" Sasha allowed herself a moment to decide what to do. "Watch my back." Fiona nodded.

Sasha skitted across the open space to the next groove she could press herself into, and looked down the path. In the distance was a couple dots of fire, some huts, and lots of movement. It was too far to figure out what it was exactly. Sasha glanced back and found the others were following her lead, both out of their element.

As nice as it was to be the one in charge, to be in the respected position and hot-seat, it was a bit troublesome to be the only one who was remotely comfortable in the moment.

Sasha pressed forward a bit more, bit by bit, until the sight in the distance became clear.

What they found made the four of them stare and gape.

There was dancing around fires, beating of drums and playing of musical instruments, shaking of tambourines, tables upon tables upon tables of good food, laughter, and…

"What the hell?" Felix wondered.

Nice to know he made up his mind, but Sasha was too busy being absolutely stunned. (Took him a while to make the same journey as them on his own. He was exhausted from playing catchup.) Vaughn took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, cleaned his glasses, and looked again. He openly gaped. Because the thing that blew their mind the most was that at the very height of it all was a podium, with a throne, upon which sat… Rhys.

"Okayhe'sfinelet'sgo." Sasha turned around to leave, but Felix grabbed her shoulder without even looking.

"Your idea, we're staying."

"Am I dreaming? Or high?" Vaughn wondered.

"If you are, I want some of what you're smoking…" Felix replied.

"Make that two of us." Fiona sighed.

"Three of us…" Sasha added.

"HEY GUYS!" Rhys waved. With one collective moment, the whole crowd turned to look up at them. And with one collective moment, they sighed.

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

This is bad. This is very very bad. The lunatics have seen Vaughn and the others.

Think, Rhys, think...

They think I'm a god. I can use that.

"HEY GUYS!" I wave. If I appear to be on good terms with them, then so will be new 'friends'.

I step down from my throne and move through the crowd. The psycho's bow to the ground and worship the very ground I walk on. A group of them run in front of me and lick the ground before I walk on it.

Ew.

Regardless, I walk on the licked ground to the guys and I smile as welcoming as I can. Its not hard, I REALLY am glad to see them. The old man may think me as nothing more than a slave, Sasha is extremely emotional and unstable, and Fiora is too cautious for my liking, but they have nothing on my new friends. STFU-69 is NUTS!

"Wow, you are in so much danger... I'm glad I rushed here as fast as I did. What would you ever do without us..." Sasha says sarcastically while eyeing the psychos around me. The psychos are pawing at their tongues cuz it is covered in trash, literally. Who would be stupid enough to lick the ground to create a path for their god when the very ground is made of trash? These guys.

If I was a god, I wouldn't be here. I would be home. I would snap my fingers to make Vasqez serve me food on a silver platter and I would sleep the rest of the week off.

"Yeah, you have no idea." I smile. I am genuinely terrified here.

"My Sweetness!" The claptrap unit comes up. "Who are these fine delicacies! Are they friends?!"

"Sweetness? What?" Fiona giggles.

Sasha looks between me and the droid then smiles evilly. "Did you get a girlfriend while you were out? Ah, your making me jealous."

"No!" I exclaim. What?! That THING is not my girlfriend! Hell, that thing isn't girlfriend material for anyone! Period!

"Why yes! I am my god's girl friend!"

Fiona bursts out in full-blown laughter. Felix pinches his nose in frustration.

"No, you are not!" I exclaim louder. "Guys, this is a claptrap unit named STFU-69."

"You do realize his name means-"

"I know." I interrupt Vaughn. I hear sniffling and look over to the see the claptrap unit is making sniffling sounds and looks like its about to cry.

Ah hell... can't I have one moment of peace without stupidity and chaos?

"Look at what you've done now. You made your girlfriend upset." Sasha teases me. I glare at her and she just breaks out in giggles along with Fiona. I swear she is loving this.

"You're not helping!" I hiss. "ANYWAY! STFU, these are my friends. They will be staying at the temple too."

It's eye goes incredibly wide. "Friend's of the Jack god. It is a good day to be alive!"

"Rhys, what are you doing?" Felix whispers.

"Roll with me on this." I reply.

STFU-69 takes us to his house, which still sucks, and after a brief one-room grand tour, leaves us to spend our time until my next 'appearance' among the worshippers.

"You guys have got to get me out of here!" I exclaim as soon as we are alone. "These guys are NUTS!"

"Of course, they think you're a god and are celebrating in your honor." Sasha replies while looking at the dog cage.

"Were they seriously licking the ground before you walk on it..." Vaughn shivered in disgust.

"Yeah, they were." Fiona added.

"Rhys..." Felix growls. "YOU HAD TO SCREW SHIT UP DIDN'T YOU!?"

"I know I'm sorry!"

"It was so simple! STick with me! Don't leave the path! Don't go alone! WHAT PART OF THAT DID YOU NOT GET!" He exclaims loudly.

"Uh. The part where you don't give a damn about me and we were not getting results needed to get to the briefcase."

"Well, congratulations Hyperion retard! We are now even FURTHER away from making the antenna! Now we have to worry about getting you out of here too!" He pokes me in the chest. What is with these people and poking me in the chest? And why do they keep getting surprised when they hit something metal. Yes, I know, I'm a cyborg.

"Actually..." I say slowly. "We have what we need."

"Oh?"

I nod. Despite everything that has happened here, there is one very interesting thing that makes it worth while. I put my hand in the curtain door and open it to reveal my throne. The crowd cheers on seeing me, but I point to the throne. "Look."

Part of the throne itself is an antenna, and an operable one.

"Well..." Fiona says thoughtfully. "At least that is something. Good job, Rhys."

"Thanks." "Don't compliment the idiot." Felix and I say simultaneously.

"But how are we going to get it to do what we need? Its out in plain view." Vaughn asks.

Well... there is one way.

Fiona looks to me, and we share a knowing glance. I think she is thinking along the same lines I am.

"I'm not going to like this... am I?" Felix mutters.

"Nope." Fiona replies. "Rhys. Do what Hyperion's do best. Play god."

"Why do I feel I am being insulted?" Vaughn asks.

I nod. "I'll do my best. How hard can it be?"

"We will still need an exit strategy when we are done." Sasha says.

"I'll take care of that." Felix inserts himself. "None of you know this land like I do. You guys just worry about getting the damn antenna sending that signal of yours, and... what else was it?"

"Making a gps to track down the return ping." I answer. "Shouldn't be hard."

"How long?"

"Most of tomorrow." I answer. Rough estimate.

"Okay..." Felix sits down on the bench and puts his hands together in thought. "Fiona, Sasha. Con time." The girls instantly are at attention and are focused. Seems this is their element. "Roles?"

"God's best friend." Vaughn says quickly.

"Too easy and may not fit here." Sasha argues. "Last thing we want in a group of worshippers are favorites."

"Actually I think that is exactly what we want." Fiona returns. She moves to the curtain and looks outside. "Look at how the droid looks at us. It thinks itself Rhys' high priest."

"You mean girlfriend?" Sasha replies sarcastically.

"It's delusional." I defend myself.

"Yes, but my point is." Fiona continues. "Is how it looks to us in awe for being close to her god. The psycho's follow the claptrap's lead in this like sheep. So we specifically want to place ourselves as being second only to Rhys."

I smile. "So I'm in charge? I think I might like this."

"Don't push it." Sasha narrows her eyes at me.

Felix nods in thought. "I agree with Fiona. This may be the best way to secure a safe position, but time is limited. Cults like these are extreme. So the danger is real even if it seems safe." He looks between us all. "Rhys, you will play god."

Shouldn't be hard. I grin.

"Vaughn, you will be his little brother."

"Not best friend?"

"No, works better this way I think. Make yourself to be a lesser god in subservience to him. Claiming to be best friend emplies equality, which we don't want with a god here."

Vaughn nods.

"Sasha, you will be Rhys' executor."

"What does that mean?"

"Means you judge the wrong from the righteous. Keep them in line."

She grins ferally. "Oh, I can do that alright." She pats her gun.

"Fiona... wife."

"What?" We all blurt out simultaneously. All good humor is gone from Fiona's face.

"As wife to a god, you will be subserviant as well, but be in a position of authority to use your tongue effectively in his stead." Felix explains simply.

Fiona looks at me and appears as uncomfortable with the idea as I am. Wife? Seriously? I don't like nor dislike her, if anything Fiona is nothing particurally noticable in that area. Point is, she would be forgetable compared to the rest of her family when I return home. We simply have lacked the extreme despisement Felix and I share or the sarcastic-bull Sasha and I share. Fiona would be more memorable to Vaughn at this point.

And she has to be my wife? I don't picture it. If anything I picture a girl a little shorter than me that is fiesty as hell. Okay... not sure where that reflection comes from, considering I've never actually taken the time to consider what I would want in a wife, but this is just... this is getting very weird.

The others don't look comfortable with that idea either. "You sure?" Sasha asks.

Felix replies. "I'm not saying sleep together and do husband and wife things. If anything, if I find you do, I'm killing you Hyperion."

"Wasn't even thinking it, Sir." I answer respectfully.

"Good. It is purely an act to let everyone use their skills to the best of their ability. Rhys, the sooner you get that antenna and gps going, the sooner we are out of here."

I nod.

* * *

 **Note: At this stage a lot of things are happening that is important for the characters as a growth. They are in their first situation where they have no choice but to work together for their mutual benefit. It won't be too big of an Arc, or a difficult one necessarily for them to do. But the simple act of working together will help be the foundation of teamwork to come. Also Vaughn needs to be a better light. While they may see themselves as a kind of messed up family one day, I want Vaughn to be the first one to truly be on their good side. He's a good guy. Rhys is too scheming to be as easily trusted.**

 **I may have Sasha be too emotional in general, but I have a number of key points in her character in my head. First off, she is the youngest yet the strongest in terms of the ability to defend herself. So she feels she can handle herself, and she is known for her gut instinct. Yet she is the child of the group despite being 21. Thats really old for being the child-figure. She had a relationship with August where she was no longer the child in the group, and that let her blossom in a way, and she is dealing with the fact that it was a con-game. She may have been the one conning, and her feelings for August may be small, but that freedom that came with it in comparison to what she has now. Second, her family doesn't trust her gut instinct. Fiona will, but in the end her gut instinct is something they use as part of their cons. they do not associate it with anything but an act, so its like crying wolf for them. It simply doesn't count. Long story short she is in a cage of sorts where she simply isn't given the recognition her skills and maturity expect. If she is given the respect and recognition then she would be a lot calmer than she is.**

 **Thats at least how I view it. What do people think?**


	12. Chapter 11 - I'd like a Refund

**Note: Sorry this took so long to do. I've been busy with life, drama, nearly dieing myself and being surrounded by it off and on. Also been writing other fictions that I simply consider better and to which I have a deeper love for. I enjoy To the Top, but 'In the Path of' is a series I've been working on for years. I'm on the fourth one. I've developed the characters through 8-9 years of their life-span at this point and all kinds of drama and growth and friendships and loves. Its the first fiction I think of when I want to write.**

 **This story also has been a bit difficult. I know what I want to do. But capturing what it is that makes it Pandaren without being too dumb or too insane is difficult. It needs to be at a fast pace, it needs to be intelligent, it needs to be utterly insane and stupid and all at the same time. It needs to have steady character development. It needs a lot of things and is a bit hard to balance so many 'extreme' aspects while still actually being extreme in the way that Borderlands tends to be.**

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

The rest of the evening went well. Amazingly so in the I'm-amazed-it-went-well-at-all sense. We were undisturbed and while it wasn't the most comfortable accommodations, we made do and slept. Felix wanted us to get an early start on sleeping to get an early start on the day. He said we were too high-strung to play our parts right.

So the last order of business was getting STFU-69 to issue a statement that anyone who disturbs their almighty Rhys and his family will die. Sasha's idea. I don't know whether to feel bad or find it funny in an ironic way that one Psycho actually went for it and immediately died of a heart attack after declaring that my awesomeness was too much for his flesh to behold. (All I was doing was looking at myself in a mirror to see how bad some of the cuts and bruises were that I've gotten here.) Having a dead psycho as a welcome mat is not the most pleasant of greetings, but it got the point across.

"Well, this works." Fiona said. She looked down at the body in almost amusement.

"Hm." I hummed. I did my best to ignore it, but it still affected me. I'm not cold-blooded yet.

Vaughn looked uncomfortable with it. "Anyone else get the bad feeling that this guy only died because of how overly-hyped we are making Rhys?"

"Overly-hyped?" I turn to him, an eyebrow raised. "Are you insulting me?"

"No."

"Well, don't be fooled." I snap my jacket and make myself crisp. "God is not mocked."

Sasha snorted before crying from laughter while leaning over the table. Okay, now I am being mocked. I glare at her. "Well, your 'godness', we better get started." Fiona tugs on my arm and we step over the body.

"Right." I rub my hands together. "Down to business."

We step outside and within the span of 1.2 seconds STFU-69 is in our face. "SALUTATIONS! I HOPE YOUR REST WAS UNEVENTFUL AS A FLOCK OF BABIES IN A LANDMINE!"

Fiona puts her hand on the robot's mouthpiece. "Shhhhh, look. It has been a very taxing night, actually, and a little quiet would be nice."

The robot manages to turn its head to the side in confusion. "Taxing? Surely the one single insignificant little blasphemer could not ruin the evening of a diety such as him."

"Not on him, no. Very little can get under his skin, but you see… I was trying to… please him. Shall we say?" I snap my head up. Okay, what? "Wifely duties. I'm sure you understand."

"What?" I blurt out.

Fiona narrows her eyes at me. Right, shutting up. She leans down over the robot and whispers, "As the high priestess of Jack, surely you understand the burden pleasing a god can have on us girls?"

I thought the robot distinguished itself as male.

"Oh yes." The robot bowed its head in exhaustion. "It does make these old gears ache having to please him all… night… long."

All it did was stand guard… My eye is twitching. Are these people screwing with me on purpose?

"See! We understand each other perfectly!" Fiona fawns over the droid, and with a little charm, has the droid rolling away in a conversation.

My eye is still twitching as I watch them go, and all I can think is: What the hell?

"Trust me, there is all kinds of part of that you don't want to touch." Sasha whispers.

"For once, you and I are in complete agreement."

"Nice," She punches me in the shoulder.

"OW!" I rub my shoulder. "What the hell?" I have a moment where she isn't a total bitch to me, and we agree on something, AND SHE HITS ME!?

She points at my face. "Your face was twitching, now it isn't." She pats me on the bruised shoulder. "I did my job."

"Do you think it is right to be punching your 'god' though?"

"Do you think it is right for a god to have an eye-twitch? Because, sorry, but that is freaky."

I open my mouth to retort, but she just flashes a victorious smile and I close it. I don't know what to say. Its not worth it anyway. "fine, whatever. Just… go do your thing."

She salutes me mockingly and walks off. I swear there is no arguing with this woman! Aggravated, I kick the body. The body jumps up and grabs my shoulders. Its screaming. I'm screaming. Everybody is screaming. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT WE ARE SCREAMING ABOUT?! WHY IS IT ALIVE AND SCREAMING?! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

"I LIVE!" The psycho yells. "I have been returned for a refund!" The formerly dead-psycho runs off.

I see Vaughn standing in reach watching all this in complete bewilderment, and like a drowning man, I grab onto his shoulders. "Vaughn! Bro! Buddy! Pal! Stay with me! I need some kind of sanity in my life!"

Vaughn leans back as far away from me as he can. "Bro, both of your eyes are twitching."

"I realize that! That's the kind of day I've had and its only just started!"

"No can do." Felix exits the hut and pushed Vaughn along. Vaughn smiles apologetically and heads off to do something. I'm guessing Felix gave him orders. Otherwise he'll just find something to do to help.

"So I just do my own thing, alone?" I question. "Do you have any idea what can happen in that span of time! Its been minutes, and already I had to listen to a conversation between a girl-pretending-to-be-my-wife and a high-priest-insane-droid-that-thinks-its-my-lover talk shop about pleasing me all night, I got punched by Sasha because apparently that fixes insanity, and watched a guy rise from the dead?! Oh, and let's not forget that most of what comes out of their mouth is so illogical I can barely follow it!"

"Neither can they, that's why." Felix replies simply. "And that's why I'll be the one tagging along."

…

"I'd rather have Sasha, no offense." I say in blunt honesty.

"And she is too soft and gullible to handle your bullshit." Felix walks up to me and whispers harshly, "Unless you have forgotten that you are the one that got us into this mess in the first place! All because you weren't on a tight enough leash. I gave you an inch of room to breathe, and the first thing you do is try and escape-"

"That's not what I was trying to do!" I defend myself.

"Oh really? A Hyperion, who already has proven himself to be the type to run rather than fight, and is the enslaved prisoner of a group of Pandoran scum that ruined his life, wouldn't run for his life at the first opportunity? How dumb do you think I am?" Felix raises an eyebrow.

Okay, I can see why he would think I was running. He turned his back and I disappeared. If I try and say that I walked off because I'm a perfectionist and wanted to prove I could actually do something done right, he would laugh in my face.

"I… I would never do that." I say lamely.

"Oh?"

"First of all, I am here on Pandora because I chose to fight." Felix looks at me confused. "Long story. Basically I am an enemy of Vasquez and was trying to screw him. Second, I would never leave my bro."

He scoffs. "Not even if it means your death? Please. Either you are very naive or you are bullshitting me. I know how far a man is willing to go to live." He points his thumb back over his shoulder towards the scene of the village. "Pandora is living proof of that. Now, I won't deny you and the other Hyperion are close. Anyone with eyes and half a brain-cell can see that. But… survival tears even families apart." His eyes downcast briefly, before he hardens and whatever emotion was there disappears before a steel wall. He nods his head toward the antenna. "So save it and get to work."

"Right." I sigh.

We head over to the throne and I do my best to ignore all the insanity. Some Psycho's tear their shirts open, present their chests (not that the females aren't worth a glance at) and beg me to spit on them. Others proclaim my glory and 'Jack'ness. More of them throw themselves on the ground in front of me wanting me to step on them like some kind of body-rug. The rest pass out at the sight of me.

I can appreciate praise and receiving recognition. I won't deny that have a bronze statue in my honor would be totally badass. But the extent to which these people do it is mad and actually gets in my way at times.

In the distance I see Sasha is succeeding at herding a whole horde of villagers to look for anything computer-ish looking, as well as food and water. Vaughn volunteers to lead a group because, as I can attest to, he is the only one with the slightest inkling of what kind of parts we would be looking for. He would still be wrong, but the difference is that Vaughn would get me the wrong computer part while the others would get a collection of shoes, string, and lamps and ask if they can jam it into the socket.

The psycho's attending to my throne salute. One has a door for a shield and a dildo on a stick for a spear, while the other has a shoe on his head, the correct weapons and shield, but is turned around and saluting me with his back turned by slapping himself in the face. He has his tongue out and his eyes crossed. We ignore them and circle around to the antenna.

I scan it with my eye and before long every metal plate and every nail is revealed to me, as well as the model of the nails. Thankfully they are a modern model, so I can handle it without extra tools so far. One of my cybernetic fingers is a screwdriver. Useful for maintenance on myself. I unscrew the nails for the plate and glance inside. It actually doesn't look half-bad. Its covered in dust, but there are no worms, roaches, or cheese oozing out of it. No green slime.

It only shows my lowered expectations that I expect green slime to come oozing out of it. On Helios, the worst you can expect is a thin layer of dust because everyone who knows anything knows how to do basic computer maintenance.

I begin inspecting the parts plugged in and follow the wiring. It is old and the heat has caused a number of circuits to melt. I'll need to redo those. Some chips are damaged. Overall its quite doable with the right parts to fix it.

"What's the verdict?" Felix asks from where he is leaning against the back of my throne.

"Well… nothing has jumped out at me. Already that is an improvement. The air-flow is good." I insert a cybernetic finger in and insert it into a slot. "The conduits could use some repair and a bunch of chips need replacing-"

"Layman terms, Hyperion."

I take a moment to sum it up. "I can fix it by the end of the day if I get the right chips and a soldering iron."

"A what?"

"A soldering iron. Um…" I look for a way to explain it, but rather opt to present a picture on my arm. I flash an image above my palm of the tool. Psycho's in the distance gasp and pass out from the 'god-like' power I am presenting. "That is really getting old. Okay, well this is a soldering iron. Vaughn knows what it is, so he and Sasha would be able to find it easily with their goon-army."

"Okay, I'll be right back. You. Stay. Here." He points from me to the ground where we are. He glares at me. He walks off. He returns a minute later after having told Vaughn what I needed to find me waving to my loyal followers. "Don't encourage them."

"Not trying to. But those aren't doing anything too weird yet. 'Yet' being the primary word." I look to see Sasha nad Vaughn leave. "You would think Sasha's instructions to discipline would involve more telling them to not be insane and less shepherding."

"It wouldn't do much good." Felix replies. He sits down, a fair distance away from me with his gun on his lap, and leans back. "They wouldn't understand. Their madness is set too far in right now, but one day hopefully."

"Hopefully?" I raise an eyebrow. "You mean they aren't like that naturally?"

Felix looks heavily at me. Not with anger or spite or hatred, but as though I don't understand and can't ever hope to. "No…"

"O…kay…" I gulp and look at his gun. "Look, do you really think that is necessary? I know you think I may run, but-"

"Don't think too highly of yourself, it's not for you. It's for them." Felix keeps his eyes on the Psychos around us.

"Riiiiight… and you say there is hope for them?"

He is silent a moment. "When you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your past where the screaming, the pain, the death, the guilt, the fear, and burden is unbearable, just remember there's always madness to provide an emergency exit, Hyperion. I don't deny some are born insane, but most of this is the doing of the wars that have plagued Pandora. You treat people, your victims, like animals… and they will become animals."

I stare at him a long moment, and for the first time since I arrived on Pandora… something actually clicks. Something fits into place.

And I don't like the feeling it leaves in me.

What would Jack do?

For once, I don't know what Jack would do. Well, he probably wouldn't care enough about these people to look, because looking creates empathy, and empathy gets in the way of progress. We can't have that.

"Thing is," I find myself in conversation. "Is that a lot of these Pscyho's are not from Pandora. What you say makes it sound like they are victims, but they are people taken from insane asylums and brought here. Along with criminals, bandits, and gangs. The first corporations were willing to go as far as to hire criminals, psychopaths, and cutthroat murderers to get what they wanted alongside their hired army. These people aren't the victims, they are the perpetrators."

Felix raises an eyebrow at me. "Is that truly what you think? Where did you hear that?"

"History class. I had an education." I defend myself.

"An education." Felix scoffs. He looks at me in disgust. "So you sat in a nice safe little classroom where Jack-manufactored droids told you what life was? Why am I not surprised. No wonder you Hyperions are brainwashed."

"Yes." I answer heatedly. While he tries to make it sound bad, yes, those are the facts. I was in a classroom with other children. My teachers were the same as all the other kids: droids. "But I didn't learn what life was from the classroom. I learned what life was from the barrel of a Pandoran gun because when I was a child it was Pandarens who attacked Helios and slaughtered."

I pause before I continue, "So does that make me the bad guy or the victim, old man? You are right. Pandarens have suffered. Its been a war. But don't think the damage hasn't been on both sides."

He hardens himself again. He says icily, "Even in times of war there are war crimes, Hyperion. And being a nice little educated smart-man such as yourself, you would know that." He glares at me so strongly that I decide I've pushed him far enough.

 **-Fiona-**

Fiona walked along with the droid. She figured the droid was the main problem for them, and so keeping the droid isolated would keep it under control. They made a journey through the mountain in the immediate area. The droid was happy to engage her in conversation.

Fiona asked, "So, tell me. Where did this all begin?"

"Where did what begin?"

"Well," Fiona considered how to word it. She would have to make stuff up. "Rhys came to you in his glory to end what Jack started, but I, being just a mortal wife, don't know when it started. What gave you the signs that Rhys would come? What happened to start your movement? Did Jack say something before my time or?" Fiona wasn't sure where to go with it, but she decided that if she could get to the crux of where the whole 'religion' began, they could sort-of predict where it would go.

That and with the droid being the high priest, it would work to engage it in conversation on a religious note.

"Oh! I see! You want to see…" The droid looked both ways. They were alone. Still, it wheeled up to Fiona and whispered with its hand to its mouthpiece. "The Nutritional Information?"

Fiona had a hard time following. "Uh… Sure."

The droid turned back around and headed towards the village, only to make a detour a bit to the south. "Long ago, this was a barren wasteland. I was but a simple wanderer. No purpose. No memory. Nothing."

Yeah, that is what happens when Jack decommissions all of the droid models and wipes their memory cores, Fiona thought.

"When an object fell on my head." The droid explained. It reached a hut guarded by a couple of Psychos, and it wheeled in. Fiona followed. On a stand was a pedestal, and upon the pedastal was a glass case…

"Is that a lemonade bottle?" Fiona wondered. She leaned in closer for a look. It was from Helios all right. It had Jack's big face on it with a thumb's up.

"Yes, it is!" The droid chiped in happily. "This holy object was sent by Jack and was the very beginning of this mountain! Ever since, we have safe-guarded his messages he continues to send!"

"So Jack sends you… scripture." Fiona glanced around at the trash all around her. "A mountain of scripture."

"Indeed!"

The room full of Psycho worshippers bowed and chanted. The droid looked up to Fiona and asked, "Come! Will you join us for holy worship?"

"Sure." Fiona smiled, while trying not to wince inside. "I am sure the great Rhys would appreciate me putting in some extra minutes."

"Minutes!? PFT! This is going to last hours!"

"… yippee." Fiona muttered quietly. None of the less she took up her place by the acolytes and emitted them as best she could.

The high priest stood before them all and declared, "Praise the holy nutrional information!"

The acolytes in turn chanted, "Serving size one bottle, amount per serving, calories 140, total fat 0 grams, sodium forty-five grams, total carbohydrates 39 grams, sugars 39 grams, protein 0 grams! Not a significant source of fat calorories, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesteral, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron! Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet!"

And then they repeated it, over and over.

Fiona stifled a groan.

STFU-69 took up the glass case with the lemonade bottle and presented it above its head. "The holy message of Jack! AS it was written and delivered into our bosom! Ever since the day of judgement when citrus rained form the sky, since the day when the planet's surface became a barren desolate wasteland! For eons we have lived surrounded by his holy words and his promises, awaiting the return of Jack! As it is written: Return for a refund when applicable! Jack will return for a refund! We need only make it applicable!"

 **-Rhys-**

"Oh, yes! Thanks guys." I reach up and take the tools and hardware from Vaughn and Sasha. Their gathering of goons gives me all manner of gifts, none of it really useful. What am I going to do with a tissue? Actualy that is a bit useful to wipe off some of the oil and dust.

I inspect the sodering iron. I can plug it into my arm if need be. "A little bent, but it will work nicely. Thanks."

"Can we finally get this show on the road?" Felix demands.

"We can now that we have this." I wave the sodering iron for emphasis.

"What is it?" Sasha asks. She looks at the tool curiously.

"It's a sodering iron, it will help me make repairs."

"Oh, can I see?"

The question catches me off guard, and I have trouble wrapping my head around it for a moment. I swear her way of approaching me is different in each time. She has to be bipolar or something.

You know what? I'm in a really good mood now that they got me this. They got me metal I can use, they got me a suction tube, they got me a sodering iron, and a bunch of chips. We can do this! I pat the ground by me. "I kinda have to fix it, but why don't you see for yourself what it is? Make yourself comfortable guys."

Vaughn smiles hesitantly while eyeing the proximity of the Psycho's all around him, as they all fall flat on their butts to watch. I didn't mean them, I meant Sasha and Vaughn… but whatever. Vaughn sits down. He is already familiar with how ti works. Sasha though, her curiosity is kinda cute. I don't get people very often asking as though I am the smart one. Or asking for things in general. In Helios, asking questions imply ignorance, something you don't know, somewhere you are vulnerable and can be exploited.

Perhaps it's the same way between Helios and Pandora, but in different ways. Helios war is about information and knowledge. Pandora is about fighting physically.

I snap myself out of my thoughts and put the board in my lap. With the side of my body being cybernetic, what I am about to do won't hurt me beyond a few minor stings. I turn my head to the side so my flesh won't get stung, I turn on my eye, and I begin.

The sodering iron flares to life. Its tip begins to glow, and I lower it onto the metal. A gentle touch and the iron melts a tiny bit, and as I lift it magnetically pulls the melted material off. I wipe a bit of the excess on myself (something that makes Sasha and Felix hiss in sympathized pain, except it doesn't hurt since its cybernetic) and I lower it onto the panel. The melted metal gribs the plate where I want it to, and I merge a pair of lines together that were broken. It still leaves several more, and a few lines that need to be cut to be repaired properly. I bring the sodering iron to the plate and cut a line, and in the process sparks fly. I hear a 'thump' as some Psycho's pass out. When I am done with the line I bring the iron up and use a suction tube to gently pull the melted metal off the plate.

And I continue with the next little part. My cyborg eye lets me zoom in and be precise. I create grid-lines for precision in my field of view, and I even pull up the plate's original manufacturing map so I can follow it and see what it is supposed to be and how to go about properly repairing it.

The process continues for some time. It is very fine meticulous work and I have to move my arm very slowly and carefully. I take a moment to stretch my neck since I am bending over so much for so long, and I notice Felix is bored out of his mind, Vaughn is a little bored (he has seen this done a hundred times on my arm), but Sasha is utterly fascinated. I pause and see how big her eyes are, how focused she is on my arm. I haven't seen a person this focused on something I've done in… actually ever. Its like she is actually trying to understand what it is she is seeing, as though she enjoys working with electronics and finds it beautiful.

A ting of guilt hits me, because that's impossible. She is Pandoran. I told Felix I have an education, but then… that is just something I held over his head. He most likely didn't, she didn't, and she never will. Everything these people learn they teach themselves. I can appreciate the… desire. When you see something that fascinates you, you want to delve into it, master that field and know that it is that area that your mind works well in. Some people love law and are born lawyers. Others would find it boring.

Her fascination will not go anywhere or go further no matter what she may want. I'm just getting her hopes up showing her this.

I return to my work before I feel more guilt. At one point a spark hits me in the face on the side that is still flesh, and I flinch a bit. It stings, but that is to be expected. I don't have much access to proper face-masks like I would in an actual workshop.

But despite it all, I finish. I wipe the sweat off my face, and push the plate back into place inside the antenna. "Okay, Vaughn. Let her rip."

"Letting it rip… let's hope it doesn't… actually rip." Vaughn turns it on.

It comes on. The antenna spins! I let out a whoop of victory, and Vaughn throws me a fist that I bump with my own fist. "Booyah! Got it going!"

"Impressive." Felix allows. "But does it mean the briefcase is transmitting?"

I snap my pointing finger at Vaughn. "If you don't mind, good sir."

"Not at all." Vaughn replies cheerfully. He pulls up his datapad. "Let us see… Yep! We got a signal!"

Felix claps his hands together and rubs them in anticipation. "Then let's get this going. Rhys, Sasha. Go grab Fiona and meet us at the caravan. Four-eyes, you got a lock on that signal?"

"I do."

"Good, come with me. We need to get the caravan ready to move."

Felix immediately heads off, and Vaughn follows after him. This leaves Sasha and I standing there, and I just smile at my work. I chuckle and point at the spinning antenna. "You know. I've done this kind of stuff a hundred times, but this time feels different."

"Why is that?" Sasha steps down from the throne perch and I follow after her.

I shrug. "I don't know. Doing it in a filthy-" wasteland. "mountain? Having an audience?" I want to say I meant that in reference to the psycho's, but I think we both know how hard she was focused on my work. She was on the edge of her seat the entire time.

"Maybe being here has given me a newfound perspective on life!" I consider jokingly.

She rolls her eyes. "Now you are just waxing philosophical. What kind of Hyperion are you?"

"Right," I cough into my hand and make my voice as deep as I can. "Damn the apes! Damn them all to hell!"

"Are you calling me an ape?" She drops her tone a bit.

"No, Sasha that was a movie reference. You know… Planet of the Apes?..." She looks lost. "Seriously? Okay, you have to see it. No kid should grow up without having seen all seven planet of the apes!"

"There are seven planets with apes?"

"No, seven movies. Eight if you count the weird rip-off and then the 21st century versions, but those don't count. Seven original classics!"

We stop long enough to ask for where Fiona and the high priest are, and between the gibberish we manage to get some idea of where to go. We leave the village.

"So…" Sasha hesitates. She doesn't follow it up, and I look over curiously. She fidgets with her hands. Its kinda cute actually.

Wait wait wait. 'Cute'? Really? This is b1 we are talking about. She doesn't do cute. She does 'I'm going to take your eyes out with a spoon and beat you up with your own arm'. My arm is still sore from earlier. She has spent every moment throwing sandwiches in my face, yelling at me, hitting me, shooting in my direction, or generally being a brat. Yeah, something has to be seriously wrong with me if 'cute' is a word to pops into my head when in this woman's presence.

"Look…" She sighs. "You said you wanted a fresh start a few days ago… and even gave me the cool scalpel thing."

I nod. That's more like it. So what I said finally is going somewhere. "Did you get it working."

"No." She looks aggravated at it. "But the thing is… what you did back there. That was… that was cool."

"Thanks." I nod. Okay, so a compliment. That's something. First Grandpa Cranky calls me by my name instead of 'Hyperion' or 'cyborg', and now Sasha is giving me a compliment and bringing up my attempt at neutrality. "Nice to know it is 'cool'. Will you continue to try and make the thing work?"

"Yeah, I'll see how you got it working. But what I really want to know is… can you show me to do that?"

I slow down briefly. Did I hear that right? She wants me to show her how to use a sodering iron and make repairs? Is that more than just simple appreciation, but a desire to learn from the master? IS she actually putting me in a position of superiority? My Hyperion instincts tell me this is a weakness to exploit. She has revealed she is dumb in repairs. I already know they are dumb when it comes to computers. I can sabotage them.

I push aside those instincts. That won't get me anywhere. I have that option available if they turn on me, but until then I want to avoid making more enemies. I need allies. If Vaugh and I are going to get the ten-million dollars and make an attempt and getting our lives back to some semblance of normal, I can't screw them over. Not yet.

Sasha sees me hesitate and turns defiance and embarrassed, "Sorry, it's stupid to ask."

"No, no its not. I just…" I scratch my head and look for words. "I'm not used to hearing someone wanting me to teach them or show them… anything. In Hyperion you learn from robots, and then you teach yourself."

"How?"

"Well, with the Echo-net… But then you guys don't have libraries full of texts exactly at your disposal…" To do it or not to do it. If I teach her, even a little, then I lose an edge. My value in their family as a prisoner is that I am the repair guy. If they get another, then they don't need me, and they'll kill me. In addition, I will lose an edge I can use to reverse the tables on them.

But if I do it, I might gain… some sympathy. Maybe even an ally.

I jumble the options in my head. I sigh. "I'll teach you a bit when we have time."

If anyone sees the glow in the air or surprise on my face by the completely unabashed and extremely wide smile on her face or the spark in her eye, I'll deny all of it. It was like being hit by a grenade. One moment she was a little embrassed, meek, and hesitant. The next moment she is hyper and happy and giddy and like a little kid being told she can see the Jack-museum. In all of it I was left dumbfounded.

I've seen appreciation. But it is always controlled. This girl is just a ball of raw emotion!

I appreciate that she isn't hugging me or doing something extremely girly. That would have left me more overwhelmed.

In the distance we see a hut and we trudge our way up to it.

 **-Fiona-**

Fiona had no idea how long she sat there… on her knees… bored… surrounded by the endless chanting of text off a stupid lemonade bottle! It took all of her self-control to keep the smile on her face, appear humble and yet diety and in control and surperior all at once, and to not run from the boredom. Did she mention she was bored?

Finally the endless chanting was broken by a psycho bursting in and hooting. Literally. The psycho was hooting and hollering and not saying a single thing.

"What's that?!" The high-priest droid exclaimed as though it actually understood a word of the animal noises. "Great Rhys has revived the beacon?!"

Fiona considered this. Had they revived the antenna? Dang how long had she been sitting there?

"Great Rhys has proven himself!" STFU-69 declared. "We must free the Jack from within him!"

Fiona felt a chill go down her spine. The droid pulled out a knife and pointed it into the air. The psycho worshippers yelled and beat their chests and slammed their faces into the ground. It was to this scene that the curtain opened again and Fiona turned to see Rhys and Sasha. The two looked in on the scene in a mixture of dumbfoundedness and aloofness. The entire hut-temple looked back at them. Fiona felt the situation snap.

"Run!" Fiona yelled and ran.

"GET HIM! THE TIME FOR JACK HAS COME!" The high-priest pointed its knife.

Rhys and Sasha turned and bolted down the mountain with Fiona. The psychos immediately followed.

"What have you gotten into them?!" Rhys yelled.

"Nothing! I kept it pacified all this time!" Fiona yelled back.

"This is pacified?!"

"Shut up, Hyperion! They're worshipping a bottle of lemonade! What else can you expect?"

Rhys jumped over a Psycho that lunged for him. "Well that just about fits with everything I would expect from these people!"

They ran, scrambled, jumped, and rolled down the hill fast as their legs could carry them. The howls and screams of psychopaths followed. Under normal circumstances it would be for their blood. Today it was for the release of Rhys from his fleshly prison. Same thing one would suppose.

 **-Vaughn-**

Vaughn helped the old man down. The old man grumbled about it, but Vaughn could see he was having difficulties. He could see the man was agile for his age and very strong, but the old man could do only so much against age.

The old man didn't ask. He didn't say thanks. That's fine, because Vaughn didn't offer. He simply helped the man down as they went and moved on.

"Pretty fit for a nerd, aren't you?" Felix stopped to catch his breath.

Vaughn shrugged. "I always found activity helps me think. Studies have found that doing repetitive actions helps your thought process by 35%."

"And that is precisely why you are a nerd."

Felix sat down ontop the refrigerator next on their way down, threw his legs over the edge, and dropped. The ground shifted under his feet and the fridge toppled over, but Vaughn shoved his hands against it and kept it firm. Felix scitted away in a moment of panic, but as he saw the Hyperion had taken care of it, he simply nodded in thanks. Vaughn let it drop.

"You not like your friend much either."

"How so?" Vaughn wondered.

"Dependable."

Vaughn grit his teeth, but otherwise said nothing for a moment. "I know… he messed up. But believe me, Rhys is the most dependable guy I know."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You take a thousand guys from the same crop back on Helios, and they will be efficent. They will never make a mistake. But they also will leave you in a jam. Rhys… he is ambitious. He makes mistakes because he…" Vaughn wasn't sure how to describe it. "He tries too hard to be something that he isn't. Yet when the chips are down he won't let you down."

"Hmm." Felix grunted in reply. "I don't see it."

"If you don't trust him so much, why leave him back there?" Vaughn pointed back with his thumb.

"I don't trust him. I don't trust you for that matter, but you at least cooperate and don't give me trouble. I left him back there with Sasha. She has her issues, most girls do, but she can control him fine."

Vaughn felt concerned by it. Not that it wasn't somewhat warranted from the guy's point of view. Vaughn knew Rhys was doing his best, and life was just taking a crap all over him. Rhys was the type to take oppurtunities when he saw it, but he sometimes lacked… caution.

But for Sasha to be watching him? Vaughn thought Sasha was okay. A bit highly strung, granted, the biggest concern was that the two of them couldn't be in the same conversation, much less the same room, without butting heads and chewing each other out. Vaughn wasn't concerned with Sasha watching him, in as much as it was shooting him.

A series of shots fired in the distance and the two of them halted. Felix looked back. Vaughn felt a chill down his spine. The shots continued in short bursts.

The two of them shared a glance and turned around to go back.

 **-Sasha-**

Well everything was going to shit.

A group of Psychos jumped them from the front and Sasha gave them a reason to back off after shooting the first two. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. See, Psychos are called such because they are psychopaths. Psychopaths can only consider the positive spin to their actions, never the bad ones. So they see beautiful, young, tanned girl with gun? They think hot, gorgeous, meat. They don't think gun, death, run. Even with half of their friends down they can't think past how that means one less competitor to the cannibal bar.

Fiona shot off a round or two but neither hit. She needed a lot more practice.

Rhys was busy running just in front of them like a bafoon… a very distracting buffoon. He had the dumb idea that running back and forth waving your hands in the air was dodging bullets. Except… there were no bullets. The psychos were running at them with clubs and the like. So… yeah. Sasha couldn't figure out what the actual hell he was thinking.

Meanwhile behind them was a stampede of nutjobs. If they slowed down they were dead.

Sasha pointed her gun behind her back and let off a few rounds. She didn't know if they hit, but she could only hope. "Keep running!"

"Don't have to remind me!"

"Good! Because I thought you were going to stop and have a nice chat!"

They came across a rickety wooden bridge and ran across. Unfortunately a group of psychos were at the other end, and Sasha turned around to find there were a bunch, along with the dumb droid, back at the beginning. They were effectively surrounded. Sasha pointed her gun forward while Fiona pointed back. Rhys was stuck in the middle. "Shit." Sasha cursed.

"Language." Fiona muttered.

"Got a plan there, sis?" Sasha wondered while ignoring the ramblings of the droids and psychos. The enemies stepped onto the bridge and were coming at them.

"Actually, yes, but you won't like it."

"I think I will like being a wishbone even less."

"Great. Cyborg, grab the bridge. Sasha, shoot the ropes."

"What?!" Rhys and Sasha exclaimed.

"Just do it!"

Sasha growled, and looked the droid in the eye. She was not going to be food… She also didn't' have falling to her death as on her bucket list either. But then… if the odds were-

"Sasha!"

"Fine!" Sasha grabbed the wooden plates with one hand and shot the ropes holding the bridge one by one. Some took a series of bullets to be cut, and immediately the bridge swayed. The psychos were not deterred, but Rhys was muttering all kinds of panic under his breath. Sasha shot the last rope apart.

The bridge collapsed and swung hard to one side. The psychos fell, and the droid leaped. They hung on as tight as they could and Sasha swore as they impacted the side. Her fingers were jammed between the bridge and something sharp on the other side. The bridge bounced and she shifted her hand enough to get it out of the way, but she felt blood pouring down her finger tips.

Something small, metal, and tight grabbed onto her leg and Sasha screamed. She looked down to find the blasted robot had grabbed her. She kicked and tried to push it off, but it held tight. Sasha reached down with her gun. The droid climbed up her until it reached her shoulders and leaped up onto Fiona. "Get off!" Fiona exclaimed.

Sasha aimed up and fired a round or two into its back. She aimed just so it wouldn't richochet into her sister, but it also diminished the damage. It shrugged the impact off and climbed up.

"Get off them!" Rhys barked. He kicked at the robot on Fiona's back, but it instead grabbed his own leg. "Okay, now get off me! I don't like this any better!" The robot held tightly to his leg and continued to climb up, cackling happily.

Sasha fired up at it, but between the swinging bridge and Rhys's wild movements tryign to get the robot off, she couldn't make a clear shot and risk shooting him in the process, or her sister. There was too much in the way. She made the shots she was sure were clear, but they were still drastically off aim.

Rhys exclaimed, "Fiona! Take the shot!"

"I'm out! It only had six bullets!"

Sasha barked, "Why are you carrying a six-cylinder in a place like this?!"

"Can we discuss her choice in weaponary later!" Rhys cried. He continued to swing himself and shake the droid, but the droid was persistent. It reached up to his shoulders.

"At last." It cackled happily. "At last! I got the think he wanted! It's big! Nice and big! I told him I would go big! But he wouldn't believe me! But he gave me a bad wrist from all the computers, and I tried to get his rocket in here but it was just too big! That's why I don't go outside no more! But he had to have it his way! What, did he think there is a secret key to everything?! No! It's Tuesday! You take your medicine and then you get your meatloaf!"

The droid reached Rhys's head and clamped down around him. It pulled out its knife. Sasha found a clear shot and took it, because for once Rhys was holding still. The shots peppered the back of the droid and managed to do damage, but it persisted.

"JACK WILL COME FOR HIS REFUND!" The droid stabbed Rhys in the head.


	13. Chapter 12 - Armpit of Pandora

**Note: I'm sorry for not writing much. I haven't been writing To the Top, Marek of the Rebellion, or In the Path or Prophecy much at all these last few days… or weeks. I don't know how long. I simply haven't felt the urge to write. I sit down and try, but nothing comes. It is not so much a writer's block in not knowing what to write so much as lacking the energy to. I have so many epic things in my head to write, so many incredible scenes and events, but ultimately I can't bring myself to hit the keyboard.**

 **One of the things I am doing with Rhys is that I want lots of character progression with him. Not just in his relationships, but in himself. When I played Tales from the Borderlands, I was 100% good guy. I'm sorry, but he is Hyperion. That's not possible. So I am trying to balance him between his two sides we had available to us. The side that looked out for his friends and the people he cared about at the expense of himself and worked with everyone as a team, and the side of him I simply dub Greed, who would screw everyone over to advance himself. I won't have him be completely on one or the other, but have moments where either side comes out.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13 - Armpit of Pandora**

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

 **-Present-**

Rhys found himself being thrown in and out of the room repeatedly. Ever since he finished telling his tale about Mount Trash, up to the point he was stabbed in the brain, the bandits had not taken it well. They said he was lying. They said he was bullshitting them. They said it was impossible. After all, he didn't have a wound now did he? At least not around the head.

They pulled them out. Interrogated him. The leaders didn't show up for a weak. Instead they had their goons beat him. They threw him over a table, tied him down, put a cloth over his face, and poured water over him. A form of water torture, he realized, that was more psychological than anything else in its intensity. They stripped him naked and tied him to a beam in a kind of mid-air crouch position so that if he wasn't struggling to hold up his weight, he felt his shins would break. They returned to the routine of keeping the lights on constantly, and having goons run in screaming and waking him up at random intervals to keep him from sleeping and losing an ability to distinguish time. Was it hours? Was it days? That was the affect it had on him. He couldn't tell the difference anymore.

Rhys leaned against the wall and chuckled as they came for him again. This time, they took him to the little 'tale chair'. They strapped him down and shined a light in his face. He chuckled more.

"You think this is funny?" Mordecai wondered.

"Oh yeah." Rhys smiled madly. "Because you actually think you can break me with that crap."

"You're just a Hyperion, soft, weak, pathetic." Lilith muttered.

"I may be Hyperion, and I may have not endured daily trauma, but I lived through all that Pandora had to offer as well as having Jack in my head, and winning. You really think you can beat him?"

They were silent a long moment, and Rhys leaned back with his eyes closed. He was by no means a winner, but it felt good showing them that they weren't doing anything to him.

Course that was a lie. They hadn't broken him, but he felt the cracks. He was a cyborg. There were a million ways they could destroy him and break him. It all came down to how badly they wanted to know his tale… and how badly they wanted satisfaction.

"Then let's start from where you left off," Lilith said. "You were stabbed in the head, but there is no hole. How do you explain that?"

"I do have a hole in my head." Rhys turned his head to the side and touched his temple where his bioptic-transceiver was. "The droid was aiming for a specific point. You may think it coincidence, but the droid knew exactly what it was doing… I was just unlucky enough to be the first person it worked on."

Rhys knew the time for tales was coming. But how much could he tell? He knew it would come to this at some point, and he couldn't hide it. But if they knew everything… as in everything. They would kill him without second thought.

* * *

 **-Rhys-**

 **-Past-**

I hear gunfire. Laughter. Screaming. I'm holding my angel. I'm holding my demoness. I'm being flogged. I beg. I plead. I yell. I am betrayed. I scream for revenge. I seek power. I seek salvation. I seek justice. I seek revenge. I hate. I love. I run. I kill. I strangle people. I shoot people. I am Hyperion. I am Pandoran. I know what I must do. I am the past. I am the future. I am a savior. I am a murderer. I am salvation. I am damnation.

 _ **"I may be the villain, but I am the ********* hero!"**_

I see a bright light and squeeze my eyes shut against the blinding pain in my eye. The sensation of touch returns immediately, I feel the bed under me. The caravan jumps over a series of pebbles. After a moment I realize it isn't shaking violently, it is shaking a lot. It is moving quickly.

There is something around my head. I reach up to touch it. It's a cloth bandage around my head covering from my cheek on my cybernetic side up around my scalp. "Wha?" What happened.

"He's awake!" I hear someone exclaim.

I wince in pain. There is clamoring of feet. I don't mind it too much, if only they would be so kind as to remove my head first. The first person I see is Vaughn.

"Hey, bro. You feelin' okay?" He looms over me with concern.

The girls are on the couch and Grandpa Grumpy is driving the caravan.

"I fe-feel like a drunkard… Only… I don't recall drinking." I try to sit up, only to have the world spin and I fall back. Okay, light: Bad. Sound: Bad. Moving: Bad. "Did I drink so much that I don't even remember it?"

"You don't remember? You got stabbed in your cybernetics."

"Oh."

That's about all I got. I feel somewhat distant from it, even though a part of me knows I should be panicking. I should be going 'what?!' Instead, it's as simple as discussing the fact that he forgot cheese on his cheese sandwich. Vaughn scampers off a moment and returns with the 'dagger' that impaled itself in my memory cortex. He places it in my hand and I look at it.

"Vaughn, this is a probe." I tell him.

"Yeah, and it stabbed itself into your… your um-" He points to his temple.

Ah, so the probe went into my cybernetic implant… specifically designed for input devices. All at once everything hits me like a truck and I feel a huge tension uncoil in my chest. My luck has been on the bad side ever since Henderson died, but for once in my life I got off on a lucky break. I laugh joyfully, and he looks at me like maybe I've lost a marble or two. "Vaugh! This isn't a knife! It's a probe!"

"I know that."

"Vaughn, the spot the robot was dumb enough to jam it in, IS DESIGNED for probes!"

"Are you serious!" Grandpa Grumpy exclaims from the other side of the camper. "Of all the people to stab by the robot of all things, just so happened to be stabbed with the one 'knife' in all existence that is DESIGNED to be stabbed, in the one place on his entire body DESIGNED to be stabbed with it!? I've heard a lot of crazy shit in my time, but that is riding one-in-a-billion odds!"

I chuckle, even as I begin to remove my bandage. I stop. "Is there blood or anything, bro?" Vaughn shakes his head, so I continue. If the droid only stabbed me with a probe in my port, then I should be okay. I remove it slowly. There is a little blood and bruising, but nothing too bad. I probably had a concussion at some point. My neck feels like it has the beginning signs of whiplash. With the bandage gone I look at myself in the mirror. The port has a little scraping -you aren't supposed to just jam things in you know!- but it should still be operable. If not, I might need to see a mechanic that knows cybernetics.

Provided we get our hands on the ten-million…

I open my cybernetic eye slowly. Everything is clear and crisp. All at once, it goes haywire and outside of my control. It starts spinning around in my skull, looking at Vaughn, looking at Fiora and Sasha, looking around the camper and spinning around over and over. I clamp a hand on it and close my eyes. The experience of half of my vision spinning like that was enough to make me dizzy all over again. I fall back with a pained groan.

"What's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?" Vaughn, of course.

"No, no." I remove my hand for a moment and try my ECHO-eye again, and once more it moves out of control. I clamp my hand tightly against it and struggle not to throw up. "I think that, while I am lucky enough to be alive, it was not without some damage. My eye is acting up."

"Let me see." Bro sits down by me and looks me closely in the face.

I really don't need him baby'ing me, but I am not exactly in the condition to argue. Besides, little things like this show trust, and who else would I trust but my bro? It wouldn't do any harm, though I know I will regret it. I remove my hand once more and turn it on. As predicted, it moves on its own. "Oh, Jack-damnit." I groan and turn it off while covering it. "Please don't ask for that again."

"Yeah, it's acting screwy." Vaughn agrees.

"That was freaky. Like a lizard." Sasha comments.

"Did I ask you?" I argue childishly. She sticks her tongue at me, and I return the favor.

"As… intelligent as this conversation has turned, you are a bit behind the times." Fiora says with a slight roll of the eyes. "Vaughn was able to get a lock on the briefcase while you were knocked out, and we are heading there."

"Great!" I exclaim happily. Progress! It's a small step, but it's a step. I may not have the ten million, yet, but I'll be happy with getting it one step at a time. Except… No one looks happy. They fail to share my optimism. They are really silent and… moody. "Uh… not great?"

"We're heading to Armpit."

"Armpit?" I ask in disbelief. "What kind of name is that? Who names these places? Mount Trash! Armpit! Next you are going to say the smith is a guy named 'Smith'."

"That last one is real. Where do you think the name 'Smith' came from?"

"Are you screwing with me?"

"She's actually right." Vaughn inputs himself. "In the medieval ages, blacksmiths and etc would be nicknamed 'Smith' for so long it stuck and became a family name for some."

…

Ok, I didn't actually know that.

Felix stops the caravan. Through the window I see we are parked by a small outcropping of rocks. In the far distance is a kind of city, and I mean city is the loosest form possible. In reality it is a collection of wooden walls, sheets, cardboard boxes, and layers of tin thrown together with ducttape and staples. Movement is the only real proof the giant homeless haven is populated. I see lanterns, and in all of it is incased inside the cut-out side of a mountain. The mountain itself is loosly in the shape of an arm flexing its bicep.

"I can see why they call the place Armpit." I mutter.

Felix turns in his chair and barks, "Alright, everyone get out and stretch. We've been cramped in here for a day. We will be heading in shortly." He gets up himself, loads his shotgun in his arms, and stomps out of the caravan. Sasha, fiora, and Vaughn follow, and I go out after a second glance at Armpit.

I walk out to find everyone stretching, and I join in. My back pops making me gasp, and I twist my arms around after having spent who-knows-how-long unconscious. My cybernetic's itch a bit and I feel some pressure on my scar. A little stretching relieves it. Vaughn drops down and does push-ups at a rate that, frankly, scares me, and the girls turns out are amazingly flexible. They could do gymnastics.

Between Vaughn's odd strength and the girls flexibility, I feel kinda insignificant standing here. Like, 'yeah… I'll just do my two pushups… over here. Don't mind me.'

Felix leans against the caravan, not joining in, and says to me, "Feel free to walk around and loosen up, but stay where I can see you, cyborg. Oh, and keep the caravan between you and the city." He adds as an afterthought.

"Why? Afraid they will see me and realize we are here?"

He grins ferally, "They already know. We are in range of snipers."

I gulp. Yeah, that's a reason to stay on this side. Making sure to keep the caravan hiding me from the city in the distance, I walk around and stretch my legs. The area we are in, specifically, is a wide open plain. In the far distance I see a dust cloud as a jeep, with a turret on it, screeches across the land. I hear hooting and hollering. Felix grips his shotgun in preparation, and the others stay down, but everyone relaxes as the jeep either doesn't notice us or doesn't care. It goes off.

Vaughn comes over to join me, and talks lowly once we are out of hearing range, "So, what's the plan?"

"Plan?"

"Yeah, don't you have a plan for us getting the ten million?"

"Vaughn, to be honest, my plan has been to just stay alive, earn a few loyalty points from our captors, and keep us steadily progressing towards this point. Things have been shifting too wildly from one day to the next for me to come up with anything solid. Everything here kinda wants us dead, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and my ability to fly by the seat of my pants is admittedly not the greatest."

"What?" Vaughn looks at me in confusion, "What do you mean you don't trust them?"

I look back at him like he's lost his mind. True, I won't deny these three Pandorans are probably stand up people, so far as Pandorans go. But that is like saying your local cannibal is an allright chap, despite the fact he still wants to skin you, just a little less than the next cannibal. "Bro, have you forgotten we are slaves, they are our captors, they got us into this mess, and they are Pandoran?"

"They went back for you!" He raises his voice defensively.

"Because they NEED me!" I yell-whisper. "They aren't our allies and they sure as hell aren't our friends! Allies have each other's best interest because of a contract, friends have each other's best interest without ever being asked to make a contract, but they are forcing us to have their best interest against our will with no obligation towards us except to decide when to kill us more conveniently! This isn't sugar-land, Vaughn! This is monopoly where you skip go straight to dead! "

"How can it be 'against our will', when we all want the same thing! I haven't heard you once argue the plan to go after the ten million!" He narrows his eyes at me, and I don't like the look in them. He knows me well. He is reading something. "Rhys, you always have a plan."

"Well, not this time!"

"No. You always have a plan." He repeats. "No matter how bad things have always been, you had a plan. Even if it wasn't a fully concrete plan, you had an objective. A goal… Something to aim for…" He gulps. "What aren't you telling me?"

I avoid his gaze and brush it off. "We may want the same thing now, but do you really think we will once we have the money?"

"Don't change the subject."

Vaughn is usually not the pushy type. He is the follower, the one encouraging others, the one that has everyone else's back. It takes a lot for him to hold his ground of his own will.

"Rhys…" He stresses. "What are you not telling me?"

Do I tell him? Do I let him stay ignorant? I hear Jack saying that what he doesn't know won't hurt him.

But he's my bro…

I sigh, "Vaughn… I haven't had any plans because… I don't know what to aim for. I don't see us going anywhere."

His composure softens a bit in understanding, but I know he doesn't get it. "We just get the money, and get back to Helios. Even if it's not all the money, because you know they will want some, we can still point at Vasquez or-"

"It's too late for that." I interrupt. I hate how defeated I sound. I rub my eyes and try not to sound like I'm torn up about this. I've had time to digest it, but even a few days isn't enough when you simply ignore it. "Vasquez pinned it all on us."

His eyes widen and he goes rigged. "Wha?"

I pull up the messages I received on my hand for him to see. He reads them, and grows steadily paler. "Sorry, bro. I would have told you, but… Screw it! I should have. I've been scared enough to admit it to myself, and I've hoped I could come up with some way out of this, and I didn't want you panicking, and…" I shrug. "Sorry."

"Heh." He chuckles, still reading the message from my hand. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Vaughn…" Here we go.

"Relax, I'm not panicking. It just means we can't do business… on Helios… or anywhere for that matter. All of our assets are liquidated. The moment we set foot on civilized soil, we are criminals. We have a bounty. That's all. Not a big deal at all." He gulps. He continues to grow steadily paler. "B-but I'm not panicking! Are you panicking!? Because I'm not panicking! No, it's only our entire lives up to this very moment flushed down the toilet! Heh… We can rebuild! Rebuild everything! So long as we don't panic we will be okay!" His breathing picks up. "I me-mean, it's just Pandora! The expected life ratio of a Hyperion on Pandora is six seconds, and we have already surpassed that enough times to give me whiplash! I mean, we have been in hot water, but this is getting hotter. I mean… really, it's getting hotter! Has Pandora always been this hot!?" He suddenly stops breathing.

I can practically hear Jack going, '3… 2… 1…'

"I think I'm going to have a good faint now." Vaughn falls backwards with his eyes wide-open.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO NOW?!" Felix yells.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" I bark back.

"I LEAVE YOU GUYS ALONE FOR TWO SECONDS…"

Felix lets loose a string of curses in a language I don't understand while him and the girls run over. I manage to lift Vaughn's shoulders, but not much else. His eyes are staring wide-open and its really kinda freaking me out. Fiona looks at me irked, "What did you do?"

"Nothing." I growl. "I just let him read a message. I knew he would panic, but he insisted."

Fiona picks up the guy's legs and helps me carry him back to the caravan. Meanwhile Fiona yells directions for Sasha to wet a rag. We lay Vaughn on the couch. Felix slams the door shut and directs a glare at me, no doubt for causing him trouble yet again, before returning to his usual seat. Sasha hands Fiona the wetrag, which she places on my best friend's forehead after placing a hand on his forehead.

"He doesn't feel that hot, but his pulse is racing," Fiona says. "Poisonous bite? Did you see anything or hear anything or did he really just pass out from panicking?"

"Like I said, he panicked."

"Probably a good idea to check him anyway, just incase."

Fine, don't trust me. I was there!

"I think he'll be fine." Sasha assures us.

"What tells you that? Have you checked anything?" Fiona asks, still irked.

Sasha and her stare at each other a moment, and I get the feeling some kind of understanding passed between them, because Sasha goes quiet and turns away. Felix steers the caravan out from where it is hidden and has us heading for the town. Fiona just nods. "That's what I thought."

Felix yells back from where he is. "We don't have time for this. Cyborg, check your friend for bites or puncture wounds. Fiona, Sasha, up here. We need to figure out how we are going to do this."

The Pandorans discuss amongst themselves what the plan is while I tend over Vaughn. I know that Vaughn fainted from panicking, so I feel no need to check him over just because Fiona is butting heads with her sis. Lo and behold, Vaughn wakes up quickly, and he is confused as can be.

"Rhys? Wha? What happened?" He winces and touches the back of his head. "Why is the back of my head covered in dirt?"

"Hello, Sleeping Beauty. You passed out on me back there."

"Passed out?" He looks at me in confusion.

It is probably not the best idea to drop the bombshell on him a second time and have him pass out again. I just smile and pat him on the shoulder.

* * *

"The plan is to infiltrate Armpit, and then the gang under Vallory. August knows our faces and names, so we have to find the money and get the bomb without being seen." Felix looks between the four of us from where he is in front of the map. "Cyborg, can you track the bomb to a more precise location?"

I nod. "It will like trying to look for a star against a sun, but possible. The easiest method would be triangulation."

"Is that like strangulation?"

I just smile in mirth and chuckle. Some part of me wonders how I can find such a question amusing. It tells me a lot how much I have endured already when it doesn't make me bat an eyelash. I touch three points on the map as I talk.

"No. I'll save the technical gibberish, but we will need three people to take a tracker around the city. These three points here should be good. From there we can pinpoint it to a building."

Felix looks at me for a long moment before directing his attention to the map. "Okay, set the trackers. Fiona, take Vaughn and go here. Sasha, take the cyborg and go here. I'll set up here. Once the cyborg has the location, we decide where to meet."

It takes me five minutes to set up the trackers and place two on the table, along with my third. I briefly show them how to handle the devices.

"How exactly is this going to show us where the bomb is?" Fiona asks. She takes one of them and sticks it in her pocket.

"It won't." I explain. "I will. The points will simply give me what I need. Like I said, it's a bunch of technical gibberish."

Felix frowns, clearly unliking the prospect of depending on me so heavily, while I feel assured my position is secure. "Go on then, the sooner we get the bomb the better."

Vaughn and Fiona leave the caravan first. Vaughn looks back over his shoulder at me, with an unreadable expression, before he follows after her. A few minutes later Felix has Sasha and I head out. Sasha takes the lead while I follow. She has an SMG on her hip, and she prudently keeps a hand on it as we walk.

"Don't I get one?" I ask as I step over a drunken (or dead) Pandoran. The sound of gunfire, drunken laughter, and partying and singing from people who are incredibly high makes me twitchy. "I don't need… you know… a military grade rifle. A pistol would suffice."

"No."

"A pea-shooter? BB-gun?"

"No."

"Well at least give me a butter knife!" I insist.

Sasha looks back at me, considering it, before shaking her head. "I can't. I shouldn't be allowing you to be armed."

I mutter. "Fine, I'll just kind of hide behind you if these people go nuts all over us. To hell with my pride… This place as as bad as Tortuga."

"Tortuga? Where's that?"

I eye her a bit in disbelief. "Pirates of the Caribbean? Captain Jack Sparrow?"

She growls, "Is that another alias Jack used?"

I shake my head in disbelief. "Captain Jack Sparrow is just the main character of a very good series of movies based on pirates, but this whole… Pandora city reminds me so much of Tortuga or Shipwreck, cities from the movies. You really need a movie wish list. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Three Stooges, the good Terminators… If I ever get a life back, I'm sending you a hundred things to watch. "

"That's if we ever get the money."

"You doubt our abilities? You know, if it weren't for the war, I would actually think we all make a good team. I have skills none of you have, and it got us this far. I'll get you a bit further, and then you all will do what you do best to get us further from there."

Sasha didn't immediately answer that, and while it is somewhat rude, it also leaves me a bit pensive. I wonder about what I just said. It was just conversation, but I still find myself considering the truth behind it. I don't trust them. I plan to jump ship with Vaughn as soon as we got the money and figure out what to do from there. Sasha is alright, Fiona is meh, and Felix would rather shoot me than make nice. The only one I would feel remotely sorry for betraying is Sasha, but I'm not so foolish as to forget that it is their fault my life was ruined or that I am alive only so long as I am useful. They are what they are. I am what I am. Our interests are temporarily aligned. Allegiances naturally shift.

If this was a different place, a different time, I could imagine we would truly make a great team. We could perhaps even be friends. Not the kind of friends you stab in the back just because its good business, but that you have a kind of love for and trust they care enough about you too to have your best interest at heart.

Unfortunately the universe in which this tale exists in is not so kind.

At last Sasha says, "I don't doubt our abilities. Despite a few hiccups, you have proven to skills we don't have. At the same time, we have skills you don't. I doubt you have ever fired a gun in your life. It's just…" She hesitates.

"Just what?"

"Just a gut feeling. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. Something… something doesn't feel right."

"About us being here? Are we being watched?" I struggle against the urge to look around.

"No. About the deal. I don't know what or how, but I've been having this nagging feeling in the back of my stomach since it all started, and it has only gotten worse. Like this whole thing is bigger than what we think it is, and we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg. You know the feeling you have when something very bad is going to happen, but you don't know what?"

"Can't say I do."

"Yeah, well. I've had it." she sighs and puts her head in her hands to massage her temples. "Don't listen to me, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I probably sound insane."

"Oh, I won't deny you sound insane." I agree. She shoots a glare at me and I smile widely. "But if it is any consolation, I find gut instinct is something worth relying on. The galaxy is so full of facts and figures and junk to fill your head with, but try as we might to process it all, the subconscious does it much better than we ever can. Have you ever heard of a shark?"

"Don't think so, why?"

"A shark is a sea animal, a predator. It can smell blood from miles away and know where its prey is with just that. It doesn't know where its prey is, it can't see it, it has nothing to rely on but gut instinct and the simple knowledge that it is there,. Yet despite all that the shark still finds it."

Her jaw goes a bit slackjawed, but she clamps her mouth shut and starts to chuckle under her breathe. "Now I know I'm insane. My own family never believes me because it's just part of my con playing, and the only ones to believe me is our prisoner and a guy we handed a bomb to."

"Sounds like you have had about as twisted a time as I have had."

She glances at me again, and we laugh a bit. After a moment just standing there relaxing, Sasha nods in the direction we should get moving in, and we continue on. I find that, oddly enough, the atmosphere isn't as chaotic to me as it was a few minutes ago.

She's right. From the very beginning she was talking about having a bad feeling about this. Her words were spot on when we met. Perhaps it was just a way of playing us, she did change tune awfully fast, but then maybe not. Maybe, deep down, her instincts were really telling her that there was something going on… something that would go bad.

I listen with one ear as Sasha tells me that we will be stopping at a bar. We stick mostly to the crowds. We stop at said bar where Sasha steals a hooded coat from a drunk man leaning over his stool, and tells me to wait while she enters the bathroom. I try to appear casual, but I have no idea what I am doing. There are waitresses with low cleavage all over the bar with filthy men at every available seat. I am the most smartly dressed man here at this point, and that is saying something considering how I haven't had a chance to freshen up since I left Helios.

With the other part of my brain, I consider what she said. She feels this deal was just the tip of the iceberg. Now that I consider it, her feeling has merit. My first question comes to, why Vasquez? Vasquez was not that big on Helios before the deal with August, and I am saying that not just because I despise him, but because it was the truth. The man was lower than me. Killing Henderson did not mean instant promotion in place of the man he killed. Killing Henderson should have meant the next runner up gets promoted: me. So why did Hyperion skip protocol and go straight for Vasquez?

My second question comes to: Why was Vasquez the one August contacted? Vasquez was a low-class shark with limited reach and resources. He had a weak network. I have a limited network, but one with long reach. I had access to all kinds of information. The only information Vasquez had access to, that I didn't, was direct P2P messaging, and even in that area there are much bigger fish. Fact is there are much bigger fish than me (that is so painful to admit) and bigger than Vasquez with more powerful resources, a better team, more authority, and more ability to handle these transactions. There are people in Hyperion who are as dirty, as powerful, and as skilled as they come, and of all people that lands this deal it is Vasquez? Why didn't Hyperion have their top man handling it instead of just a couple contract men?

Hell, for that matter, why did Hyperion allowed the man to do it. I can understand it looks good to be able to get a vault key for only ten million. That looks really damn good on a resume. But at the same time a vault key is such a matter of security that you would want to stick a whole army on it just to make sure it doesn't get a scratch. If anyone so much as farts in the direction of a vault key there should be more gunfire going off than a fire range. Yet… Hyperion provided no kind of security. They didn't step in for a single moment and ensure the deal went through smoothly. The fact that a simple contract man, namely myself, was able to intercept the deal, shows the sheer and utter lack of security provided by the Hyperion Corporation.

I stepped in and screwed it up further, because it still didn't have the slightest bit of insurance, risk management, or protocols followed as it should have, and I had been too hung up the whole time on my life to realize that.

The way it should have happened was that Vasquez lands the contract, and Hyperion handles the rest to ensure the package is delivered. Or a middleman of respectful business sense to provide the insurance of the vault key being delivered into the warm, loving hands of corporate men.

Something is going on. This whole thing was crooked from the beginning. Not just from the con-artists, but the men who agreed to have the deal done.

My eyes widen in shock as a thought occurs to me. Did Hyperion know it was a con from the beginning and left it to Vasquez, with no backup, because it was a low-risk/low-reward scenario? Is that why he had such a hard time getting ten-million? No. Even a fake Vault Key can be a publicity stunt.

So was Vasquez doing it all behind the Hyperion's back? That would explain the lack of protocol and hush-hush, but then Vasquez wouldn't be able to point fingers at me and Vasquez…

Except we stole ten million dollars and he doesn't really need to say why we did, only that we did.

This is an important detail, I feel it. My shark senses are tingling.

My thoughts derail as Sasha leaves the bathroom and I'm left speechless. She changed her hair. Before it had been in wrapped cords, and now it is curly and almost like a small afro. I try to withhold my mirth, but with a single raised eyebrow from her, I can't resist. I laugh. "Wh-why did you change your hair?" I ask after I can breathe again. Now that I am looking, she also put on makeup. Not the kind to make yourself beautiful, but to look scarred over an eye down to her jaw.

"It's part of doing cons and making an identity. August's men will recognize me the other way."

"Ah." I say simply. Another chuckle escapes. She levels an even glare at me before rolling her eyes.

"Laugh it up, Hyperion. I'm not the only one getting a change. We didn't have clothes that fit you back at the caravan so we will have to improvise." She looks over the crowd, picks one, walks over, and hits the guy over the back of the head with a bottle. People from all around stop and turn to look at her, and my hair stands on end. She just shrugs and says, "Fly. Got it for him."

Naturally that answers that, because they all seem to understand and turn back to their business. Sasha grabs the unconscious man by the shoulders and drags him over to where I am hiding in the hall. She throws the man into the bathroom and motions for me to have my turn. "Ladies first."

"Don't mind if I do." I allow the jab at my manly pride.

The door shuts behind me. I strip the man, and about gag on the smell of his own body. His clothes have blood on them, and not just from when she hit him. Before long I manage to get it on. I take one look in the mirror and gape. The shirt is a few sizes too small and goes up above my belly button, exposing the scar I have, and the pants go up just below my knees. I have a hat that covers my scalp and falls over half my face because lo and behold… it's a couple sizes too big.

She just shrugs, "You look more Pandoran than you did earlier. And cover your holoeye with the hat. Just let it fall over your face a bit an… let me see." She steps in and adjusts my clothes while I stand there with my arms out feeling like a mannequin. After a moment of fussing and adjustments, she steps back to survey her work. She gives me a thumbs up. "Much better."

I look at myself in the mirror. I would say I don't look bad… for a Pandoran hobo in clothes either three sizes too small or three sizes too big. "I look like a hobo!"

"And you will fit in fine now, provided you also talk like an illiterate and think four times four is fish. Let's go. We can go deeper into the city now."

I follow her out, and I smile ferally behind her back as a plan blossoms. My shark senses smell blood.

If Vasquez revealed why we stole the ten million dollars, then he would have been thrown into jail or exiled or killed for trying to do such a big contract behind the back of some very powerful people. Vasquez is not in jail.

Therefore, he didn't. He told them we stole the ten million to get us blacklisted, but never the reason.

Therefore, Hyperion doesn't know about the Vault Key screwup.

Therefore, we can do it again. If I can get my hands on the money, then I can skip the middle man fencer (August), go right to whoever-the-hell gave him the fake Vault Key to begin with, and get them to make a second one.


	14. Chapter 14 - Triangulation Equalization

Vaughn paled at the sight.

Him and Fiona had the longest to walk, with their point being on the other side of the town. Him and Fiona had entirely different ideas on how to get there. He wanted to circle around, be safe, and take his time. Most of all that would mean staying alive. Fiona said that going through the center of town was actually just as safe, since the hunters are more likely to pick you off at the edge of town than in the midst of it and start chaos, and it was a shorter distance (a necessary consideration with Vaughn's limp), and she wanted to get a general idea of the vibe of the town.

Vaughn backed away from the clearing into the alley and hid behind a crate. "I'm going to say we found out a bit of what is going on!" He whispered.

"We don't know anything, yet. They could just be visiting." Fiona frowned in thought, while observing the ongoing of the bandits. The emblems of their respective bandit lords were on their shoulder pads, torso, cape, or facial tattoo (tongue included), and from what she could see there were at least five different emblems being represented.

She didn't recognize them off the top of her head, but she liked the fact that she didn't see the irish clan, red-neck clan, or Crimson Raiders. The first two couldn't be within ear-shot of each other without gunfire going off, and the latter was too dominating and full of self-superiority to cooperate with anyone. Not that any other clan was much better, but the Crimson Raiders had let their victory over Jack get to their heads.

"Right. So bad people visiting bad people. You know what happens when you have bad people visiting bad people!? Bad shit happens when bad people visit bad people! I don't like bad shit!"

"Vaughn, your panicking."

"Yeah, I'm panicking! We've been walking and sneaking and seen a lot of bad people! I don't just mean your run-of-the-mill Pandorans who are a bit crazy and down on their luck, I mean the full-fledge bandits with allegiances to big bad bandit lords!"

"Vaughn." Fiona put her hand in front of his face to stop him. "Stop panicking. We're just seeing things and moving on. Now we have seen. Now we move on. Agreed?"

He nodded rapidly.

* * *

Felix may not be as nimble and spry as his girls, but he knew how to avoid being seen. He planted his device and sat in wait for the time to synchronize. He glanced at his watch: three minutes.

While he waited, he gazed out over the city. He saw the gatherings, the tension in the air. Something was going on. Something big. Entire sections of the city were given to the control of different bandit lords, temporarily. There were hundreds of bandits from all across Pandora.

And the money was in the middle of that.

Felix furrowed his brows and felt deep in his gut that something was going on. He had gotten them involved in something He couldn't say what. But it had to be huge. He knew this not only because of the multiple bandit camps meeting here, but the fact that he had been roped in to getting ten million Hyperion credits.

Ten million was a lot of money.

Originally Felix chocked it down to basic greed. August wanted to overcompensate for a lack of parenting (who didn't around here?) and Felix understood well the idea of aiming for the stars. Don't just settle for a thousand, hundred thousand, a million. Pft, that s just for people with low ambition. To August, it was ten million or nothing! Go big or go home!

But now Felix felt that perhaps, it was less of a childishly planned need to overcompensate and actually the foundation of something bigger.

Felix's watch chimed, and he set himself up to broadcast to the others. He went as far as to open his mouth while holding the button down when he couldn't utter anything more than a groan. His eyes were locked on something that surprised him. He forgot entirely to talk, or that he was broadcasting. All of his attention was on the man walking towards the center of town.

He didn't know the man's name or face, but there was no mistaking who he was with a suit and swagger like that. The Loader bot guards and polished black limo also helped give it away.

Hyperion.

"Felix, dude. If you are masturbating, I really don't care to hear it." Felix's receiver spoke in Rhys' voice. "Sasha looks like she is going to throw up. Or she is having a seizure. Or heart attack. Or all three."

Felix snapped his attention back to his handheld. "What, I wasn-?"

"Felix, gotta tell ya. That s disturbing." Felix heard Fiona's voice on the channel. He also heard Vaughn laughing in the background.

Felix growled and grew red in embrassment. "I wasn't I-"

"Sure, sure. You got the thing up and running?" Rhys asked.

"Yes. Felix over and out." Felix barked, threw the device, and couldn't be bothered to notice that it bounced on a bandits head, and the bandit punched his friend in the face.

"Kids these days "

* * *

"I don't care to hear it." Felix muttered as he sat down. Across the table from him he saw his girls, and the Hyperion slaves, had changed their clothes to adequately appear Pandaren. He expected as much from his girls, but it was a slightly smarter move from the Hyperions then they had shown so far. Either they were learning or they were following his girl's orders.

Now if only Sasha could look at him straight.

He barely recognized the taller Hyperion in his getup. The smirk and eye-patch gave it away. "Well, we didn't either."

Felix leveled an even glare on him, which made Rhys smirk wider.

"I trust you have triangulated the money's location?"

Rhys nodded, "Yep, its right here."

He threw up his cyborg arm proudly and created a holographic image from his palm, but the image was gritty. Rhys narrowed his brows in confusion and flicked his hand open and closed, changing the image repeatedly, trying to get it to work. At one point it showed an image of a car, Handsome Jack, an advertisement for penis enhancers, and an old fashioned cartoon character named Bugs Bunny, amongst others.

"Come on. Come on. No. No! No! Come on! What is with you?!"

"Got a problem there?" Fiona wondered.

Rhys growled to himself in frustration, continuing to try. "I don't know! Nothing's working right! Blasted droid screwed with my circuits pretty hard Finally!" He got the right image up.

It didn't escape Felix's attention that the other Hyperion and Sasha both looked very concerned with the continuing malfunction.

Rhys pointed to where a dot was blinking on the screen, and then an 'X'. "The briefcase is right here. And we are currently here. From what I've seen that would be the big mansion in the center of town."

"It s August's home." Sasha added. "Or was before he moved out."

Felix looked closely at the map. He chewed his tongue in thought. "That's to be expected. It is Vallory's mansion. Means security is tightest there Esspecially now. Anyone else notice the number of gangs prowling around?"

Everyone nodded. Vaughn counted off his fingers, "I think there were at least four groups?"

"Make that five." Felix muttered. He pulled out a picture and passed it down the table to Rhys. "As a fellow Hyperion, you know this guy?"

Rhys raised an eyebrow curiously, and picked it up. His eyes fell on the figure in the focus, only to widen in shock. "Vasquez?!"

"Vasquez!" The rest exclaimed, except Felix. He simply narrowed his eyes and growled.

"What is he doing here?!" Rhys barked.

"Good question " Fiona bit her finger nails. "Four bandit and pirate groups meeting Vallory, and a high ranking Hyperion stooge. Something is going on."

"I have a bad feeling about this!" Sasha said. She desperately looked between everyone. "First we just want to sell a con to get ten mill, then it blows up in our face, and soon we are going to be having a bomb going off in Vallory's face, and Guys, this is only getting bigger and bigger! Don't you think there comes a point where we have to say, 'we've done enough'? Lets just forget about it! We have no need for the Hyperions, so let them go and get out before things get bad."

"Based on what?" Fiona wondered. "It's not that abnormal for bandits to meet. They do things on the spur of the moment. The fact that a Hyperion is here does change things but we don't have any facts to base our suspicions on."

Sasha looked to Vaughn. Vaughn swallowed and looked away. Her desperation only grew as she looked to Rhys. She had felt something bad was coming, but now her feeling was reaching its climax. She was utterly terrified.

Rhys and her shared a glance, where Felix noted some form of understanding passed. Without saying a word they seemed to have an entire conversation. He held back his distaste for it, and left it in his heart to keep an eye on. Like Vaughn, Rhys looked genuinely sorry for letting her down.

Felix let that fact sit in his stomach. He had not tried to con his own prisoners, but were they both under the influence of Stockholm Syndrome? Felix let himself smile inside. His girls had taken control of the boys well.

"I'm sorry " Rhys whispered. "But we can't get our lives back without the money. And if there is one thing I'm not: it s a quitter."

"You can't seriously expect to be welcomed back on Helios after losing them ten million empty handed do you?!" Sasha cried. She looked frankly hurt by his not taking her side.

"No But there are many places out there." Rhys hardened himself and looked to Felix. "I know I am not in the position to ask this of you but in return to us helping you bag the ten million I want Vaughn and I off Pandora."

"Oh?" Felix put his hands together and leaned forward. "Interesting. So your refusing to quit by quitting?"

"Call it 'regrouping'." Rhys replied evenly.

Sasha gave up on Rhys and looked across the table to Felix. Felix hated letting her down, and were it just about the ten million well. "Sasha If it was just about the ten million, then I would agree. I know what I am about to say may not make sense from the perspective of a Pandaren or Hyperion but from the perspective of the man who raised both of you: our lives are not worth ten million dollars."

Sasha relaxed around the edges, and Felix sighed in regret. "But this is about more than ten million dollars now."

"No "

"Sasha, there is a bomb in there that no one knows about but the people at this table. At best, let's say this 'gathering' of bandits is just them on vacation and sightseeing. The bomb goes off in either Vallory's or August's face. If its Vallory, then August will hunt us down to the ends of Pandora because the boy is not stupid! If the bomb goes off in August's face, then it's not much better, and we have the bonus of you knowing you murdered your ex-lover."

Felix smiled gently. "I don't want you to go through that "

He continued, "Now at worst, this 'gathering' is the bandit leaders meeting to discuss something big, evil, and chaotic. Hell, they could be playing a game of dungeons and dragons for all I know. Or more likely poker. Also we add a big Hyperion to the mix. The bomb goes off everyone dies. While I won't deny Pandora is a land of never ending war, chaos, and anarchy there is established some semblance of structure by the fact that bandit leaders have risen up and taken control of their territories. Take away every bit of that structure and we are left with how Pandora was at its worst."

Sasha let her head drop. She was touched by his concern, something he rarely expressed, but she was scared all the more by the danger and idea that they were continuing to go in. She just wanted them to get out and escape. Rhys frowned.

Fiona elbowed her and giggled, "Come on, Sasha. This isn't like you! Besides, we don't know if it's all that big a deal. August probably is saving it for his mother's birthday and has it tucked away in her closet."

"A birthday would explain the gathering " Felix allowed.

"Ten million dollars, and all the trouble we went through, for a birthday present? Are you serious?" Sasha glared at Fiona, who just shrugged.

"That s the point. We don't know."

"So we're going after the money?" Rhys wondered. Sasha shot him a glare.

Felix nodded.

* * *

Vasquez gulped. Not that he allowed the gulp to be in any way visible or showing on his persona. Better to keep them guessing. Yeah. Totally keep the big guy with the gun guessing why he was there.

"Hey." Vasquez smirked. "You know why I'm here?"

The big guy at the door glared down at him, then seemed to consider it. "Where have I seen your face before?"

"Probably on your father while he was having his way with your mother. If you know what I mean."

"What?! Father was cheating on father?!" The guard grabbed Vasquez by the shoulder and yelled, "How could you cheat on father like that!?"

"Hey hey hey! Don't touch the jacket!" Vasquez barked. He pushed the man back and straightened up. First thing he did was fix his tie. "I was just screwing with you, idiot!"

The bandit looked down at him blandly and if Vasquez wasn't irked already, he would have thought the big guy was blushing. "I... I appreciate it. But I don't swing that way."

"Oh my gawd " Vasquez muttered. He put his face in his palms. "Just look at the freakin' VIP list! My picture is right there!"

The big guy looked up at the VIP list. "Oh! Whatta you know! That there is your picture! Hey, that's why I recognized ya! Well isn't that just dandy. Oh, perhaps I should just let you in."

"Thank you." Vasquez grumbled. The big guy finally seemed to have some damn manners. Vasquez went to walk by him, but the big guy put his arm out.

"Except how stupid do you think I am?"

"Wha-?"

"Father knows I don't read good! I don't know what those pretty symbols mean! And I'm not falling for it again! That there is a wanted list!"

"No, it s a VIP list!" Vasquez yelled. Yes, yelled. He was yelling. He had allowed himself to reach the point of yelling. This week was not one of his good ones "AND I'M NOT YOUR FATHER! I WAS SCREWING WITH YOUR HEAD!"

"My head isn't screwed in! Its nailed in!"

Vasquez genuinely didn't know where to go from there. After staring at the man big for several solid seconds, he grit his teeth together and hissed, "Get August. Daddy says so."

"Okay Daddy." The big man rang up August.

Vasquez couldn't have been any happier than to see the scumbag. August looked like he had a permanent glare going, and there was something dangerous about him. Vasquez had met him once before, and he was a bit of a push over. He had a soft thing for this girl, and he had this permanent smile going. Now that smile is seemingly replaced with a deep seated frown.

Oh well, not his problem. Girls were messed up.

"August, explain to this idiot that I'm a VIP."

"He's a VIP." August said simply, albeit coldly, and Vasquez felt a chill go down his spine.

"Oh! Okay, I'm sorry for confusing you daddy." The big guy smiled.

That earned them a surprised blink from August and Vasquez wanted nothing better to suddenly gain five metric tons of pure gold-plated muscle just to strangle the idiot. August looked between them. "Is there something I should know about?"

"Nothing." Vasquez replied coolly.

August nodded, saying nothing more as he lead the Hyperion. Vasquez, meanwhile, gave him glances out of the corner of his eye. He had only met the Pandoran once, but already there was such a deep contract with who he was that it set him on edge. There was something dark and unsettling in him, a rage barely concealed behind his eyes and his clenching fists.

At last they entered a room and were welcomed. Vallory, a very large woman with incredible strength despite her girth, sat at the table and smiled warmly at their arrival with all the grace of an alligator. Just for her to look at him made him want to shake in his boots, and sent a hateful spark into his heart. There was no one that he hated more than this vile woman. And that was not a statement to be taken lightly, he had a long list of people he hated, despised, disliked, and generally thought were beneath notice. Vallory ranked #1.

"Welcome, lad. Took you long enough."

"With everything going on Helios, departure took a little work, a little favor here and there, a few dollars in the right pocket." Vasquez replied gracefully. He struggled to make sure his contempt for her was carefully concealed, and in its place was fear. That he didn't have trouble showing. He didn't have to fake how much he wanted to poop from sheer terror, or the tremors, or the imminent nervous breakdown.

Vallory continued to smile ferally, "I'm sure."

"Is he what you wanted me to see?"

Vasquez noticed the speaker and felt himself pale in fright. There wasn't a single soul on Pandora who didn't know this woman. She was a legend almost equal to Handsome Jack himself. If Handsome Jack was the champion, the very incarnation of Helios, than this woman was the red-headed incarnation of all things Pandoran.

Lilith, the FireHawk of the Crimson Raiders.

* * *

"Sooooooo any ideas?" Vaughn wondered.

Rhys shrugged. Sasha stared at the ceiling. Fiona frowned. Felix stroked his chin. With the silence, Vaughn figured it was one giant 'no'. At least until Rhys raised his hand.

"Here is what we do. We sneak up to the building all ninja-like. We throw a magazine on guns away from the door. The guards chase after it like it s a porno, unable to resist its allure. Once inside we take out the guards one by one, steal their clothes, and walk up to Vallory like we own the place. Once we have her surrounded, we ambush her, gag her, hold her at ransom for her bounty, take the money, and use her as a hostage to get out. Once out, we high-tail it out of here and accomplish one final mission: finding the most expensive pub we can and getting completely and utterly wasted!"

Rhys' idea was met with silence. Not even the other patrons were making a sound. Vaughn could hear crickets chirping.

"No." Fiona said.

"Hey! You can't just say 'no'!" Rhys argued.

Felix narrowed his eyes, looking disappointed. "Boy, the ONLY part of that entire monologue that is accurate is the idea of us being wasted. We do this then the end result will be us being wasted by a hundred guns before we ever set foot in that place."

Rhys looked to Sasha for backup, and she just raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I'm sorry? You want backup? After taking their side earlier? That makes three counts of stupidity."

"What?!" He exclaimed in surprise.

"First, expecting me to just back you up after that was stupid. Second, expecting me to back you up with a stupid plan is stupid. Third, the plan was just plain stupid. Fourth, not understanding why I would say this means you're stupid. So make it four." She smiled darkly. "Or did you forget I'm a Pandoran b****?"

Rhys stared at her with his one uncovered eye. Vaughn could practically smell the gears turning in his head. Rhys didn't look angry or insulted, if anything he looked flabbergasted, shocked, confused, and a little hurt. Rhys opened his mouth to say something, but slammed his mouth shut just as quickly. After several extra seconds (whether it be considering his options or still trying to process what had just happened) he looked away and mumbled.

Vaughn himself was a bit surprised. Undoubtedly Rhys was too. They had met woman with aggressive and dominant personalities, but the way of getting back at someone on Helios was with the usual backstab or steal method. Or some other method that was financial and subtle and behind their back. It was also the first time a woman had openly proclaimed when she was a b****. Usually Vaughn knew them to smile, play nice, and hold it against you for the next twenty years.

Vaughn wasn't sure which was worse. Sasha was scarier but wasn't sinister.

"Point taken..." Rhys whispered.

Now Vaughn's eyebrows flew up in surprise. For the live of him he could not remember a time he had ever known Rhys to admit to being wrong or learn from some mistake. Usually it was the tactic to go on the offensive, troll them, twist things, turn things toward their favor.

"All the same, its not like any of you guys are coming up with ideas." Rhys defended himself.

Vaughn nodded. That was more like Rhys. For a second there he was starting to wonder if hell had really frozen over, if pigs could fly, if Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey was actually a half-way decent story, if Miley Cyrus had grown up, or Jack forbid! Elvis hadn't been abducted by vampires from Mars!

"That's because a decent idea needs time." Fiona groaned. She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling, much like how Sasha did. The resemblance was striking. "You just pulled that out of your butt in a few seconds."

Time... Vaughn flinched.

They didn't have time.

Vaughn would be the first person to run, to hide, to admit it a good idea not to go and do something dangerous, but the bomb wasn't just dangerous for the Pandorans, it was dangerous for them. They would be targeted. The moment the bomb goes off the bodies would start piling up.

Flashes of images from several days ago came to him. When they had first come to Pandora to find the Mystical House of Wonders they had been attacked. Vaughn remembered seeing the bodies bodies everywhere. He had been dragged, beaten for a short while, and held hostage against a big guy's chest whose axe was literally dripping blood.

Worst of all, though Rhys did his best to hide it, Vaughn could see in his eyes that he had lost a piece of himself.

And it was all about to begin again

Vaughn gagged as the sensation to vomit hit him. Covering his mouth, he ran out of the building. Fiona and Rhys jumped up on the alert, but Felix motioned them back down saying he looked like he was just going to vomit outside. If he doesn't return quickly, then they would worry.

He wasn't wrong. Vaughn found himself kneeling over a pool of his own stomach contents minutes later. The images of blood had not disappeared, but there was nothing left in his body to gag on.

Vaughn coughed against the burning sensation in his throat, leaned back against the wall, and remembered. He remembered why they had come here and all they had suffered. Their captors were decent, especially considering the norm for Pandorans, and for that he was grateful.

But Vaughn could not handle the thought of everything happening again. He wouldn't be able to handle it.

No! Vaughn would not let it. He wouldn't let Rhys lose more of himself, and though he wouldn't go so far as to call the Pandaren's friends he recognized a debt. They went out for his bro with him. They knew Vaughn would go out with or without them, and they helped him. (The fact that it benefited them wasn't a factor to him.)

With that thought Vaughn focused. He wasn't strong. He wasn't brave. He was a coward. But even cowards have their strengths. It takes a smart man to run, to evade, to plot, and to win without ever fighting. And if there was one thing Vaughn recognized about himself he was smart.

Vaughn left the confines of the alley and looked around. He saw the natives and looked at himself.

The equation didn't fit. He didn't look, smell, or act like them. He needed to make the equation fit.

Vaughn returned to the alley, found a trash bin, and rifled through it. He pulled out a pair of pants covered in holes and one sandle. He wanted a shirt, but without one the last thing he needed was to wear a Hyperion issue jacket. He took off his shirt. With nothing on his bare-chest, he covered his chest with his arms briefly before remembering himself. He needed to complete the equation. He looked similar but it wasn't enough.

Vaughn gulped and leaned over his own vomit. "One man's trash is another man's potpourri I suppose " Closing his eyes, he slammed himself down. He suppressed a gag as he felt the sticky fluids on his chest. He rolled around to his back, he spread it on his pants, and put a handful in his hair.

Taking a deep breathe, Vaughn set his face and left the alley.

He knew where the briefcase was. He had practically memorized the map. In his mind he removed the people, the trash, the wooden buildings. Rather he saw it all as a schematic. He saw figures and calculations and graphs.

He compared himself to the people around him, and he saw little physical difference. He was small for a man, being rather about the average height of a girl, but being small here didn't seem to matter. All around him were midgets and dwarves. They were not the dwarves and gnomes of fantasy land, but the literal people called dwarves for the fact that their body stopped growing taller at an early age.

He knew he had the smell down. Vaughn could barely stand himself right then. He felt if he smelled his own armpit, or just lifted his arm, he would pass out. He was covered in dirt, grime, and with his own vomit smeared in his hair and clothes. After having just left a pub, he also detected a faint hint of alchohol on himself.

The equation was becoming equal, but it wasn't there yet.

Vaughn needed to act like them. Unfortunately, this would be his weak spot. Human interaction was not exactly his calling card, so to say, even before coming to Pandora. He left the negotiation and human involvement to Rhys. Vaughn knew himself to be a coward, scittish, and more comfortable around numbers, equations, maps, graphs, and computers. In short he was your typical basement-confined nerd. Complete with a treadmill machine back in his office, a fridge full of beer in his room right next to the ybox720 machine, and a Handsome Jack brand pinball machine.

It was while Vaughn was considering how to resolve this little setback that he failed to notice a certain screeching. It sounded like a train steadily getting louder and louder.

 _chickenchickenchiCKENCH **ICKECHICKEN**_

Until it was too late.

"CHICKEN!"

Something hit Vaughn in the face, wrapped itself around his head, banged on his skull with tiny fists, threw his balance off into nearby people and walls, all while screaming, "CHICKEN!"

"WHAT THE ****!" Vaughn cried into the stomach of his tiny attacker.

He clawed at the little guy, thrashed around, twisted, turned, and after bumping into a wall proceeded to bang his head, and the guy wrapped around his head, into the wall. For some messed up reason this made the little guy think it was a game.

"Stahmph Haumphing Haigh PHACE! (Stop humping my face!)" Vaughn yelled. His words were muffled by the little man's stomach and just after yelling and breathing back in, he realized he couldn't. He was suphocating on a Psycho midget's filthy belly. His efforts to claw the midget off redoubled and his movements became more chaotic.

Pulling deep from within himself hidden muscle and untapped strength, he plied the psycho from his face and gasped for air. He gave a silent prayer of thanks to all the gods of air for making it and to himself for keeping up a daily routine of exercise before laying his eyes on the squirming midget in his hands that was reaching for him like a screaming child demanding candy.

"You are a piece of work aren't you?" Vaughn huffed. He didn't have the patience to deal with this and after nearly dying a stupid death like suffocating to a psycho humping his face, he was uncharacteristically angry. "Wait " Vaughn growled. "You re the same little shit that nearly killed us before!"

"CHICKEN CHICKEN CHICKEN!" The midget squirmed and reached for him.

It made sense Maybe just maybe after the axe-guy had run off August had assimilated the gang? From what Vaughn knew, a leader who ran on Pandora was a back to be shot. There was a chance the axe-guy was still alive and leading this group, but something in Vaughn's gut told him otherwise. He had never been one for gut instinct, but he also wasn't blind to the potential it had from people like Sasha. Even if the others were skeptical, he couldn't deny Sasha had been right at every turn so far about everything she had felt coming.

Vaughn was a guy of logic and of numbers and of odds. He didn't have gut instinct, but the odds told him August had assimilated this group.

A plan formed in his mind, and Vaughn allowed a self-punishing chuckle rise from his throat. It was a plan that would allow him to exploit this, allow minimal involvement on his part, and literally walk in like he belonged. "Okay this could go very bad. Or very good Or very very bad."

First he would need to experiment. So Vaughn slowly set the psycho down on the ground. The instant the psycho's feet found surface it launched itself at Vaughn. Vaughn cringed and stepped back, but forced himself to not flee. He closed his eyes in momentary fear and froze.

The psycho made contact with his leg and nothing. Vaughn very slowly opened one eye and looked down at the midget humping his leg like a dog.

Well it was an improvement. At least it wasn t his face. He could live with this considering what he had just gone through not two minutes earlier.

"Okay, lets see if his plan works." Vaughn whispered. "Come on, little guy."

He tried to pry the guy off his leg so he could walk and the midget wrapped itself tighter around his leg screaming, "MINE!"

"That is my leg!"

"CHICKEN LEG!"

Vaughn really didn't like where this was going. Either the midget was claiming dominance over his foot or thought it was edible. Either way was equally likely knowing where he was.

Vaughn pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed while the midget happily hung onto his leg like a tree-hugger to a spruce. The shit he had to put up with "Let's go little guy "

Vaughn then proceeded to walk. The midget sat on his foot and clung to him like Vaughn was his favorite uncle or something. "Whee! Go chicken!"

Vaughn rolled his eyes and marched towards the gang hideout where Vallory had the money. He had strong legs despite his size and occupation, so hauling the little guy wasn't difficult. He weighed no more than a child and proved to be more of an emberassment and awkwardness than a stumbling block.

When the building came in sight, Vaughn marched on. He subtlely (or rather failed an attempt at it) surveyed the building exterior and caught three cameras in which he could be seen. There was a very large, very muscular, very fat man standing in the doorway with a pistol on his hip and an angry scowl on his face. After dealing with the midget, Vaughn was as aggravated as he ever recalled being, but he pressed on with his awkward march.

"Pet the chicken... pet the chicken..." The midget rubbed Vaughn's leg. His hands were reaching a bit too high, and Vaughn had to clench his fists to keep from not making a scene. Vaughn was tired, he was filthy, he stank, he had to deal with the indignity of digging through trash and having a midget hump his leg, he was angry with himself for constantly being afraid, and he was angry at life for putting him in these situations. And if he really really thought hard about it. He was angry at Rhys. If Rhys had waited one more day, they wouldn't have been here. They would have won.

He was done with this place. He wanted to get the money, get back to Rhys, and leave.

Unknown to Vaughn, his aggravation and tension had bled into his face, and he looked as angry as any other Pandoran. So when the guard stopped him, Vaughn glared hard enough to make the man step back. Vaughn growled to answer the unspoken question, "I'm bringing this little **** back. Apparently you let him out, idiot. August won't be happy if he disrupts everything."

The guard took a look at the midget, recognized him, and simply nodded.


End file.
